Consumer electronics company LG has inked a deal with Unity Technologies to bring games built on its popular game engine to a new line of Smart TVs. This collaboration follows another recent deal LG struck with cloud gaming service Gaikai to deliver streaming games through its Smart TVs, and is part of a larger strategy at the company to increase the value of its HDTVs as "all-in-one multimedia systems" by offering an array of games. ...

D3Publisher has signed an agreement with DreamWorks Animation to develop games based on the movie studio's next three feature films: Madagascar 3, Rise of the Guardians, and The Croods. The deal's announcement comes as troubled publisher THQ, which secured worldwide exclusive rights to put out titles based on DreamWorks productions, is exiting the kids' licensed games business to focus on "core" and digital projects. THQ CEO Brian Farrell said pulling out of the licensed game ...

[Continuing our Road to the IGF interviews, Gamasutra chats with Ty Taylor about his Student Showcase finalist, The Bridge, a 2D puzzle platformer set in an Escherian world.] "The world is much larger when every wall is a floor..." begins The Bridge's trailer. The thoughtful, M.C. Escher-inspired 2D puzzle platformer makes a poignant first impression and has been turning judges' heads since it entered competitions in 2011. It has received an honorable mention for innovation ...

While the gaming world was busy watching THQ implode last week, a funny thing happened in the background. Zynga began trading in positive territory. Boosted by Facebook's IPO filing, the social games maker finally escaped the mire of mediocrity it had been stuck in since its first day as a public company and began to grow. The question is: Is it a short-term surge or the start of a true growth curve? To put things ...

Indie game fans can now blind pre-order Gamasutra sister site Indie Royale's Valentine's Bundle at a recommended € /£/$10 or € /£/$5 USD contribution, and a minimum of $3.99 USD. The games offered this time include a fantastical first-person action-adventure game (Steam for PC), an IGF-nominated puzzle adventure title (Steam for PC and Mac, Desura for PC and Linux, DRM-free PC, Mac and Linux download), a 'scorching' single and multiplayer arcade-strategy game (Steam for PC ...

The Skylanders brand has been so groundbreaking for Activision that, ahead of this year's annual Toy Fair in New York City, the publisher on Tuesday staged an announcement of a sequel called Skylanders: Giants, due this fall. Last year, says Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, many wondered what a video game company might be doing at a toy fair. "We knew we were launching a product that defied categorization," he concedes of Skylanders' aim to ...

Newsbrief: Seoul-based online game publisher Nexon revealed today that it is bringing its popular KartRider franchise to Facebook next month. KartRider Dash will be the latest in a franchise that has seen 270 million registered users over all its versions since its original 2004 launch, reports Inside Social Games. Nexon launched an iOS version last year, which topped one million downloads in a single week, and has now seen over 6.7 million downloads in total. ...

Newsbrief: Social games giant PopCap today announced that it will launch the next game in its Blitz franchise, Solitaire Blitz, in March via Facebook. The game, which follows on from other big hits Bejeweled Blitz and Zuma Blitz, is set underwater and promises an "un-solitary version" of the classic card game. PopCap plans to roll the game out gradually over the coming weeks via a staggered beta launch, before then making the game available to ...

Apple has issued a warning to App Store developers, noting that anyone found manipulating App Store chart rankings may lose their Apple Developer Program membership. Earlier this week, an anonymous developer alleged that a number of iOS developers are taking advantage of questionable techniques to rise up the top charts on the App Store, such as "bot farms" which download specific apps thousands of times, reports Pocket Gamer. According to the report, developers can pay ...

Twisted Metal development studio Eat Sleep Play has laid off part of its workforce, while co-founder and industry veteran David Jaffe is reportedly leaving the company. The Salt Lake City-based company has finished development of Twisted Metal, which is due for release next week -- a game which Jaffe says is "meant to engage your brain." However, the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper reports that Eat Sleep Play has laid off eight of its employees, while ...