gamepro posts

Activision and Spider-Man are almost like peanut butter and jam, Abbot and Costello and a shotgun and a zombie. They are inseperable. And now the next game in that partnership has apparently been revealed via the cover story for GamePro's next issue.

The title is Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and, well . . . OK, we have no idea what that means, either. We do know that all of Activision's previous Spider-Man games have shown up on the PC so we suspect this new entry will also be ported over to our platform as well. We will hopefully get more info on the web slinger's latest game exploits soon.

[Via Joystiq]

There's been some interesting shifts in the world of game journalism recently. We've already reported that former 1Up.com edtior Garnett Lee is taking over as editorial director at GameFly (and therefore at Shacknews). Now Kotaku reports that former Ziff Davis gaming director John Davison is taking over as GamePro's new "executive vice president of content". He replaces former GamePro head man George Jones who quietly left in September.

Davison was previously the co-founder of the family oriented gaming web site Whattheyplay.com which was purchased by IGN last month. According to Davison he plans to do a reboot of GamePro and will be trying to "expand the coverage of gaming's culture and personalities."

Kotaku also notes two other game journalist departures: John Keefer has left as editor-in-chief of the Crispy Gamer web site to "explore other opportunities". Meanwhile Billy Berghammer is no longer the director of gaming editorial at the G4 cable TV network. There's no word yet on replacements, if any, for either position.

It seems like more and more people want to be able to find the next indie game that can break through into the mainstream like AudioSurf or World of Goo. Today our sister site GameDaily Biz has broken the news that a new indie game publisher has revealed itself . . . and it comes completely out of left field.

GamePro (yes of GamePro magazine and GamePro.com) has announced that it has launched GamePro Labs, their move into the game publishing business. The new venture will concentrate on publishing indie games that are developed on Microsoft's XNA platform (that means PC and Xbox 360 titles) along with Apple's iPhone. GamePro is trying to "find the unrecognized talent out there and give them the keys to publish their game", according to the article. The company's official web site has already launched with a form for developers to submit their games for consideration. Indeed some game have already signed with GamePro Labs and they should be announced sometime during GDC later this month.

With the demise of Ziff-Davis's game magazine business, including the shutdown of EGM, earlier this year, many have questioned the continued future of other game-oriented magazines. However George Jones, the Senior Vice-President and Executive Creative Director of GamePro Media says that on their side of things it's all good.

Biz GameDaily chatted with Jones due to the fact that the president/CEO of GamePro Media, along with its Senior VP of Publishing, have been revealed as departing the company for other ventures. However Jones said their depatures are just a "weird confluence of events that aren't related at all." Jones said that newsstand sales of GamePro's print magazine are "...selling through at a good clip – not like the heydays of the '90s but still really well on an issue-to-issue basis." He added, "I see all the numbers and there's no reason for us to worry right now."

GamePro Media also announced that Marci Yamaguchi Hughes, formerly the VP of sales for the now defunct Ziff-Davis game group, has joined up as GamePro Media's new executive vice president and general manager According to Jones she will take over the duties that were handled by the former President/CEO and VP of publishing. GamePro's staff will also create the official magazine for E3 2009 (both GamePro and the team behind organizing E3 are owned by IDG). GamePro Media also stated they plan to announce "several new initiatives launching later this year."

Forget hot coffee, violence and piracy -- lists are perhaps the most controversial topic in the video game industry, especially among readers. Someone's favorite choice always seems to be excluded, and less-than-deserving names often manage to edge out more venerable entries.

That being said, GamePro has assembled what is arguably a competent list of the eight most powerful game studios in the world. Love them or hate them, it's hard to argue the studios that made the list, and thankfully the list is not compiled in any order designating best and worst.

Among the most notable is Epic Games, developers of Unreal Tournament and Gears of War. The growing popularity of Epic, mostly due to console gamers' embrace of the Gears franchise, certainly qualifies their inclusion. Equally important, especially to the PC gaming world, is Blizzard Entertainment. Always a favorite among mouse owners, Blizzard's World of WarCraft launched the company into mainstream culture, a move that is good or bad depending upon whom you ask.

You can check out the full list on GamePro's official website.