Marketwatch reports that data from the NPD Group indicates that April was another bad month for video game sales. Marketwatch says “relatively weak set of releases failed to entice consumers.” Sales were down 37% compared to April, 2009. NPD Group says part of the reason was the Easter holiday, but that doesn’t fully explain a 37% plunge. Read the rest of this entry »

Batman: Arkham Asylum from Rocksteady Studios won Best Game at this year’s BAFTA Video Game Awards. Here is a complete list of the winners.

2010 BAFTA Video Game Awards Winners

* Best Game: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady Studios
* Best Action Game: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Naughty Dog
* Artistic Achievement: Flower, thatgamecompany Read the rest of this entry »

The Game Beat first reported on May 11 that Best Buy plans to launch a gaming magazine called @Gamer. The first issue will launch in June. Kombo.com then followed up and got confirmation from Best Buy that they are indeed launching a gaming magazine. There is not much information available yet about what the content of the magazine will be.

Hopefully, Best Buy has the @gamer Twitter account if they are launching a magazine called @Gamer. The account has been registered by someone, but it is currently not being used.

(via Dealerscope)

Sid Meier’s Civilization game is coming to Facebook. The Facebook version will be called Civilization Network. It will be available on Facebook in 2010 according to the Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/civnetwork).

I wanted to let you know we’ll soon be looking for beta testers to help us develop a unique new way to play Civilization. Ever since we finished Civilization Revolution last year, I’ve been looking at ways of expanding the Civ gameplay experience to include solo, competitive and cooperative play to take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks. We’re calling this project Civilization Network and the full game will be available next year on Facebook. Civilization Network will allow you to join together with your friends to create the world’s most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest civilization. You can coordinate your strategy to win great battles, share your technology to jump ahead of your rivals, lobby your family and friends to form your own government and win vital elections, manage and grow your cities to maximize production and happiness, spy on your enemies, and work with your friends to create the great Wonders of the World. The game will offer everything you enjoy in Civ in a fully persistent environment – you can play as much as you like, whenever you like, and it’ll be free to play.

We’ll offer a closed beta of the game soon, so stay tuned for details on how you can sign-up to participate. The full game will launch in 2010. For more information about Civilization Network, including development updates and behind-the-scenes posts from me and the Firaxis team, join our Facebook fanpage here.

The Facebook plan is interesting but maybe it would be smarter to have an open online game with a Facebook app. There’s no guarantee that Facebook is going to remain popular. The Civilization Network also has a Twitter account, @civnetwork. Information about Civilization Revolution can be found here:

http://civilizationrevolution.com/

(via Mashable)

You’re a gamer. You’re a role-playing game (RPG) fanatic.

But what if you are one of those gamers who want to keep up with all the latest stuff? Where can you get all the information about new releases?

There are many websites that offer gaming news, but what about ones that focus on keeping us up-to-date about RPGs?

First, let’s define a few terms. There are online RPG games, and there are RPGs that you play offline (board games and on computers and game consoles). The online RPG games include free games and those you must pay to play. MMORPG is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (the best kind, right? Just a joke, but my preference!).

In this article I’m not going to give you a huge list of websites. However, I want to share just a few that you may want to investigate in your gaming quest. These are sites you will probably want to bookmark if you really love to keep up on the latest news about RPGs.

RPGWatch

http://www.rpgwatch.com

This site could be described as a news blog, with additional features like a games database, forums, and articles. The database includes listings of new releases and expected releases. The forums are not huge, but there is a decent level of activity. There are game-specific forums so you may find these helpful for finding discussions about specific games.

mmorpg

http://www.mmorpg.com

This site is a flashy site that offers some different kinds of resources. Their Game List is a long listing of individual games that has an interface allowing you to create a custom games list. Your custom list can be such criteria as release date, genre, developer, and publisher. This site’s Features section gives you access to articles. Their Forums are fairly active, and defined by topic rather than by specific game. The forums include “The Pub” (discussion of MMORPGs), News Discussion, and LFGame (Looking For Game; for help in finding the MMO that suits you best). This site also has sections on news, photos, videos, blogs, reviews, and a huge Guild List.

ONRPG

http://www.onrpg.com

This site is quite “busy”, packed with features. The homepage shows news, videos, downloads, screenshots, events, and articles. There is a nice section on “Free MMO Games” that allows access to information by categories. There is also a “Quick MMO Menu” that is really an alphabetical listing of games. There is also an interface called “MMO Genres” that can get you started looking at specific games according to genre. Finally, the “MMO Boards” listing gives you access to fairly active forums that are mostly game-specific discussions.

Learn, Participate, Have Fun.

By digging into the above three sites, you will be immersing yourself in sources of online RPG game news. You will also be able to participate in active communities where people share an interest in MMORPGs or offline or online RPG games. If you’re a real RPG fanatic, you won’t want to miss these sites.