Game Group Plc has been in the news everyday this week. For those not keeping track click here and here to get up to speed.

Today Game Group Plc released a press statement:

Having received support from its stakeholders and lenders, the Board now believes that GAME will meet its covenant tests for the period to 31 January 2012 when tested on 27 February 2012. The Board now expects that the loss before tax and non recurring items will be around £18m for the year to 31 January 2012.

Financing update:

Further to the announcement earlier today, the Board of GAME is pleased to announce that it has now concluded discussions with its lending syndicate and agreed revised terms for its facilities.

Under the terms of the revised facilities, the Group has agreed to operate within lower limits of its existing facilities than was previously available. These revised facilities will allow the company to continue to trade. The Group has also agreed to provide an updated strategic plan for review, and approval in part, by the lenders. This plan will cover all aspects of the business’s activities and strategy, including its overseas operations.

Ian Shepherd, CEO of GAME said “We’re pleased to reach agreement with our lenders, but should be under no illusions about the challenges in our market or the hard work that is required to deliver our strategic plan.”

So the saga of Game Group Plc hasn’t ended yet, but its future is far from secure. In the short-term for people (like me) who have an existing order with GAME for the Mass Effect 3 Collectors Edition, BioWare’s Community Coordinator Chris Priestly offers some reassurances:

Nothing is going to happen to Game before March.

They also now have the ME3 DLC listed on their site, so take that as a good sign.

While it’s hardly a ringing endorsement for the future of GAME, it is at least something.

Source: Game Group Plc, Bioware

What gamers all over the world got that day well ahead of the November 8^th release date was information on the game’s story, multiplayer modes, art assets, and more. As you can probably imagine, Activision, publisher and owner of the game’s developer Infinity Ward, was not happy about this.

However, they managed to turn it around and made it an opportunity that they wouldn’t have had otherwise. During Creativity and Ad Age’s Creativity and Technology event at CES this year, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg (Bobby Kotick is CEO of Activision Blizzard) spoke out about how they managed to put a positive spin on an otherwise disastrous event.

His main point was that the fans did nothing wrong and that the company was presented with a choice: they could either harp on the leak and have everyone in the frame of mind that Activision is just another company that can’t keep its assets under control or they could keep rolling with the fact that everyone was buzzing about their game six months ahead of schedule and drum up additional interest. Hirshberg’s end goal was to be able to answer one question: if this leak hadn’t happened, then what couldn’t they have accomplished? It’s a simple but powerful question to turn that leak around.

Source: Ad Age

UPDATE 6: Today GSC made their official announcement, unfortunately it did not clear up much. GSC said “We will do our best to continue. However, at this moment, nothing is certain,” and “Our website will continue, with the forum & tech support. The shop will continue until the nearest planned items sell out. (uploaded now).” They were unable to confirm if development on STALKER 2 was still on going, or how long they planned to support the site. Rumors is that a further announcement will come next week with info on the fate of the STALKER series. But for now, it seems GSC is down, but maybe not completely out.

UPDATE 5: The official Twitter for GSC Game World has posted just an hour ago that “An official statement will be made on Monday.” It will probably be confirmed then along with the reasons for the closure. Some fans are speculating that this is a PR-ruse but the way this story has developed makes it seem like GSC is truly shut down.

UPDATE 4: Sergey Galyonkin has provided an english translation of his blog post, which clarifies some of his statements. He says, “My friends in GSC believe that the reason for that is failed console publishing deal.” “STALKER 2 was going to become PC exclusive, which isn’t a great future for story-driven game.” Galyonkin does not believe that Grigorovich lost interest in the series. He also says that none of his friends from GSC mentioned anything about government involvement – which was originally mentioned in the Ukranews story. Galyonkin also says the “only thing that valuable in GSC is it’s IP and it is registered outside Ukraine.” Which means that there would not be much sense in the government trying to confiscate their assets.

UPDATE 2 & 3: Joe Mullin, former Social Media Manager with GSC Game World, tweeted to Platform Nation about GSC’s closure, saying “it happened today. To everyone.”  Also, that GSC may make an announcement soon.

UPDATE: The original posts on krautchan.net are gone but the links have been updated with pictures of the posts.  The concept art seems to have originated on krautchan.net/, a site that uses a BB system similar to 4chan. The german-based boards uses the term “Bernd” to mean an anonymous user. A “Bernd” from Ukraine posted a new thread at 13:05 with some concept art and the text “Hurr”. He followed that post up with some more concept art and the post “GSC closed, all employers fired.” Speculation in the thread that he was lying began immediately, but a moderator quickly showed that he was in-fact not only posting from Ukraine but posting from the GSC Game World domain.  The OP wrote again later saying that the studio was closed for “personal reasons”  and that Grigorovich “don’t want to sell it to someone” (though this post has not been confirmed to be from the same person). The confirmation of the OP’s posting location and the fact that the concept art seems to have originated from here are both very strong pieces of evidence that seems to confirm the studios closure.
The entire thread is available here as a PDF. 

Earlier this morning it was reported that GSC Game World, the Ukrainian developers of the popular S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games for PC , was shut down.  Initial reports had little to go on besides a Ukrainian news site and some rumors from inside the company.

GSC denied the closure on their twitter page, but then deleted the tweet. Shortly after that Dimitri Bourkovski, who claimed to be close to GSC (though not an employee)  tweeted that the studio was indeed closed. He followed up with a five part tweet saying that “GSC is closing its doors and Stalker2 is frozen.”

Sergey Galyonkin, who may or may not still work for 1C Ukraine, has written a post on his personal blog about the studio’s closure. He says, “GSC is closed, a fact confirmed by all. The team is almost completely dissolved, the state has only a few people.” He cites a failed attempt to secure a console publisher and possible disagreement by the CEO, Sergei Grigorovich, over the direction of STALKER 2′s development.

Most telling is Galyonkin’s post and a tweet by Joe Mullin, the Social Media Manager of GSC  Game World looking for work. GSC has made no statement and at the moment all they have to say is “no comment”. It seems right now that this is all but officially confirmed. STALKER 2 is presumably cancelled.

It seems like GSC was in a good financial position, but its possible that piracy damaged the studios financials. Though, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series has sold over 4 million units, which is no small feat for a Ukrainian game developer. Dmitri Bourkovski wrote that GSC  ”was as one of the biggest, right now should be around the same size as Ukranian offices of Ubisoft & Crytek (50-70 people).”

The series mainly appealed to a European audience, which may have meant that rising development costs would not pay off for a shrinking audience.

Sergei Grigorovich, CEO and Founder of GSC Game World, was named “Entrepreneur of the Year”  this February by Ernst and Young, a yearly awards ceremony with over 50 participating countries.   Grigorovich not only led the development of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series but also the Cossacks games, which made him his first million.  The young CEO, who reportedly drove a Ferrari with a “STALKER” license plate,  may have been instrumental in the closing of the company, best put in the Urkanews headline, “Kiev company decided to self-destruct.”

It was also mentioned in the in the Ukranews.com story that there might be some connection to GSC’s closure and a possible investigation into the company by some government office.  Its being speculated that it could be due to tax evasion or some other sort of corruption, or an attempt by the government to seize the companies assets. This is not confirmed however, and poor translations from Russian make it even harder to understand.

The leaked concept art is posted below:

This news deeply saddens me. As a PC gamer, S.T.A.L.K.E.R is one of the modern series’ that really show off the PC’s potential. The game combined a unique setting with a wealth of mechanics in a way that almost no other game does. If you are a true video game enthusiast you need to play the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. It’s hard to have a full understanding of modern game design and its potential without having spent at least a little time in the zone. Farewell, STALKER.

Sources:

https://twitter.com/#!/Bourkovski

https://twitter.com/#!/gscstalker

https://twitter.com/#!/joewillburn

Sergei Galyonkin’s personal blog, “About the closure of GSC”

Original news story announcing closure by Urkanews

Rock Paper Shotgun Story

http://blog.ascian.me/2011/12/leaked-screenshots-concept-art-and.html

GSC Game World Forums

OnLive has launched Batman Arkham City, with overwhelming success. The free demo of the game has broken OnLive records in the US and the UK (yes the UK as the demo has been released prior to the game in that region) for most demos played in a single day. So if you are an OnLive user, be sure to check out the first 30 minutes of the game for free, and I bet will be you hooked and you will be purchasing Batman Arkham City via OnLive

“The record-shattering performance of the Batman: Arkham City demo shows that gamers recognize the immense advantages of playing free trials on the OnLive platform,” said Steve Perlman, OnLive Founder and CEO. “OnLive makes the ‘try-before-you-buy’ experience effortless, and it’s quickly becoming gamers’ go-to destination for instant-play demos and early exclusives.”

Be sure to checkout OnLive for more information, not only for Batman Arkham City, but any other of the thousands game available through their service.

What thousands of PS3 users have now discovered, though, is that there is no BF1943. It’s not in the box, it’s not on the disc, and it’s not hiding behind a PSN code. This left many wondering if they had just been hoodwinked.

It sure seems like it. According to Gamepur, DICE stated “the Limited Edition will not come with BF1943, but with the Back to Karkland expansion,” and in response to one inquisitive Twitter user, the Battlefield account stated that “in lieu of 1943 being available on disc for PS3 customers, EA has made all BF3 expansions available early to PS3 customers.”

Aside from lacking a variety in diction and any semblance of a mea culpa, this also seems a bit shady. If you recall from last month, Sony had announced that they had managed to swing it so that PS3 users would be getting BF3 expansions one week before other platforms (same as how the 360 would be getting Modern Warfare 3 expansions first).

So sorry to say, PS3 BF3 owners, but you’ve been duped. Instead of a free game (albeit a 2-year-old downloadable one), you get zero apologies and a “hope you don’t remember!” Am I alone in thinking this is pretty much a…not great thing to do? At least their servers aren’t down, I guess.

Source: NeoGAF

Hong Kong-based publisher of interactive entertainment, and developer SideQuest Studios today announced that their upcoming strategy RPG Rainbow Moon for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system has been postponed until the first quarter of 2012.

“Quality is always what matters most to us,” said Marcus Pukropski, CEO of SideQuest Studios. “To deliver the best possible experience and a well-balanced product to gamers around the world, sufficient development time is crucial. With a story mode that lasts more than 30 hours, extendable to over 100 hours, Rainbow Moon will be one of the biggest games available on the PlayStation®Network.”

In a shocking announcement, Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder and ex-CEO has passed away. Just a single day after Apple had their first conference without Steve Jobs as the CEO, he passed away after a long fight with pancreatic cancer and other health problems. The man has an extremely long list of inventions and patents. No matter if you’re an Apple fanboy or not, you have to respect what he did. His views on consumer technology changed everything, and just about every device, from your phone and whatever you use to get your music, to your gaming console and even how you get your media; all of it has been influenced in one way or another by one of his own ideas. RIP Steve Jobs, and thank you for everything that you’ve done.

Today Gearbox has released an 11 minute long gameplay video for Aliens: Colonial Marines.
The video is narrated by Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford and covers various elements of the game, including a new alien called the “The Crusher.”
I was afraid this game wouldn’t see the light of day, but here is evidence that Aliens: Colonial Marines is making huge progress and is well underway.
All in all the gameplay is looking pretty sweet and, much to my excitement, will include drop-in drop-out 4 player co-op! So take a minute to watch and I hope you enjoy this new look into Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Our fears have just been officially confirmed, Diablo 3 has been delayed until early 2012.
Blizzard Entertainment released a statement this morning saying that D3 will not make its original release date.

With every game we make, the temptation is always very strong to launch as soon as possible. However, we didn’t put so many years of work into Diablo III to release a game that was almost ready,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “The beta test is going very well, and we look forward to making the most of the extra time we’re taking to deliver an experience that lives up to our vision for the game and the expectations of our players. Next year is going to be an incredibly busy one for Blizzard, and we hope an incredibly fun one for Blizzard gamers.

There is no good news in regards to this delay, but if your among the legions of fans who didn’t get a D3 closed beta invite, you may have another opportunity as Blizzard might be adding more testers than initially projected. Sorry to have to break this news. Guess its time to break out another Diablo 2 character.

Source: G4TV

And will be adding video games to rentals they offer. In an email that was sent out today by Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO of Netflix, Reed talked about how they will be rebranding their DVD by mail service into a new service called Qwikster, and how Netflix will only be the name of their service for those that have online streaming. Thus they will now have two completely different services to satisfy all your movie, television and upcoming video game needs. Personally, I really could care less. I’ll continue to use their online only option, and I’m happy they decided to keep that named Netflix; I think Qwikster sounds more like a fast oil changing business than anything else. I do think the addition of video games is something to watch though, I’m curious what their prices will be for renting games and if it’s low, what will Gamefly do to remain competitive in what’s currently a very uncompetitive market right now.

To read more about the changes, check out their blog as they break things down even further.