The trade association which is representing the gaming industry in the United Kingdom, TIGA, announced today that Centroid is its newest member.

Based at Pinewood Studios, Centorid is Europe’s largest Motion Capture facility, and it offers all aspects of performance and animal capture.

Centroid has worked on all kinds of game titles including Guitar Hero 5, Prince Caspian, Eve Online, Silent Hill Origins and the highly-anticipated APB and Brink.

The studios at centroid have also worked on motion capture for feature films and television including movie blockbusters like Quantum of Solace; Harry Potter; 2010

Omegame announced today that the Heavy Rain user interface was entirely created with Menus Master

Co-CEO of Quantic Dream and Executive Producer of Heavy Rain, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, explained that they wanted to immerse audiences emotionally in the storyline and make them care for the characters and what the character’s actions. He also stated that the user interface is very important in order to do that, and that they benchmarked different technologies available on the market, and finally selected Menus Master as it was the only solution providing both great artistic possibilities and easy integration within their in-house engine and tools.

The industry leading 3D Game Engine provider, Trinigy, announced today the upcoming version of its multi-platform Vision Engine. Trinigy has over 125 licensees and offices in Germany and Austin, TX.

In addition to the many features that are included in the engine to expand the developer’s freedom, Vision Engine 8 now includes a new browser plug-in called WebVision. WebVision brings all of the creative power of the new version to Browser-Based Gaming. Vision Engine 8 will be shown at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco from 11th to 13th March in Booth 1334.

The premier developer of interactive entertainment and game development technologies, Vicious Cycle Software, announced that their Vicious Engine 2 is going to support three additional gaming platforms in early 2010, which include the Nintendo Wii, The Sony PlayStation 2, and the Sony PlayStation Portable.

The Vicious Engine 2 currently supports the Sony PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 gaming consoles. The expanded cross-platform support is expected to make the Vicious Engine 2 the most complete solution for next-generation game development on the industry.

The company specialized in the creation of 3D Characters and Animations, Rocketbox Studios GmbH, has announced that all their products will be available with a 20% price discount for licensing during February 2010.

Rocketbox Studios GmbH is a company that develops and distributes a product line titled “Rocketbox Libraries”. The product consists of prefab 3d characters and animations for 3D Studio Max and Maya. Optimized for real-time applications, simulations, virtual worlds and rendering, the libraries are offered as different sets of rigged and animated human characters and animals.

The Trade Association which is representing the United Kingdom Games Industry, TIGA, today hailed the launch of the new Apple iPad. TIGA welcomes its potential for bringing creative opportunities for Game Developers.

CEO of Tag Games, Paul Farley, Stated that “The Apple iPad is another huge milestone in the move from games being consumed via physical retail to digital platforms. The iPhone is a hard act to follow, yet the impact of the iPad on the games industry could be equally as large. It is a distributive ‘game changer’ that heralds not only a new form factor for games and digital media consumption, but a further opportunity for innovative and creative games to be brought to market by independent UK game producers.”

Legacy Interactive has announced recently that they are developing a House M.D. Game for the Nintendo DS and PC based on the TV-Series. Developer Jonathan Cooperson has been keeping a diary of his game development progress, and comments on licensed versus original game content in his developer diary. Below is a snippet of the diary.

Jonathan Cooperson’s House M.D. Developer’s Diary #2

Last we left off, the script was under way and we were in the early phases of working on programming and art on our House, M.D. game. But before I get more into that I want to briefly touch on the middle part of that development
process

Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) today announced that the release of their new Motion Controller for the Sony PlayStation 3 Computer Entertainment System is going to be in fall 2010. The New Motion Controller is going to be released in Japan, Asian Countries, North America and Europe/PAL territories together.

This new Motion Controller for the Sony PlayStation 3 Computer Entertainment System will be combined together with the PlayStation Eye Camera 2. It can detect the natural movement of the hand, thus reflecting the precise movement in the game, delivering a whole new stunning entertainment experience on the Sony PlayStation 3 Computer Entertainment System.

The 2010 G.I.R.L. Scholarship is now open for applications in order to help recruit more women and educate them into the environment of video game development and production. The program is sponsored by the global leader in online gaming Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), and administered by a leading non-profit educational support program called Scholarship America.

Applications are available at www.scholarshipamerica.org/gamersinreallife, and the official rules for entry at www.station.sony.com/girl/

Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing at Sony Online Entertainment Laura Naviaux said that the past two G.I.R.L. Scholarship winners were such a valued addition to their team, that they are thrilled to offer this program for the third consecutive years.

Epic Games INC. released today the January 2010 Update to the Unreal Development Kit (UDK) Beta. UDK Beta is a free edition of the Unreal Engine 3 that offers uncompromised access to the award-winning engine and development toolset.

Epic Games INC. are committed to provide the Unreal Development Kit Community with regular software updates for free. Independent Game Developers can find the latest beta version and download it for free at www.udk.com/download

A list of the new enhancements and additions included with this UDK Beta is available HERE.

FacePro LLC announced today that thanks to Web technology and a simplified workflow, they are now able to produce Next Generation Facial Animations in a variety of the popular 3D file formats for just $5.00 USD per second.

Company President Rod Stafford stated that this will really open the door for all kinds of game developers. He also stated that while working on big projects with thousands of “spoken phrases”, and the American Idol Titles with several minutes of singing, they needed a simple and transparent method of collaborating with their customers.

Enter the REV, which is a secure Web portal where developers can log in to review, revise and approve animations.

The trade association, which represents the United Kingdom Games Industry TIGA, stated today that they will continue to “champion” the case for Games Tax Relief or an equivalent measure in the run up to the next General Election. TIGA also promised to support the games industry with other actions, besides the continuation of the campaign, including ideas to enhance the education and skills, and to promote industry-university knowledge transfer.

TIGA made the commitment by a statement of the Financial Secretary to the Treasury Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, who stated that “We, The Government, will continue to look at the industry’s case for a change to tax treatment.” He made that remark in a debate in the House of Commons on 7th January on the Pre-Budget Report.