Sierra's "Scarface" Scores 2 Million Units

"Scarface: The World is Yours", the video game based on the 1983 Brian De Palma film from Universal Pictures and published by Sierra Entertainment, has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide at retail stores.

The game originally shipped October 2006 and will now be available for the Wii™ Console this summer, taking advantage of the console's 'Remote' and 'Nunchuk' controller design.

"Scarface: The World is Yours" was created through a licensing agreement with Universal Studios Consumer Products Group. It is the eighth game to sell more than a million units and the third title to sell more than 2 million units for Radical Entertainment, one of Sierra Entertainment's four internal studios.

The game presents a sequel storyline that asks "What if Tony Montana survived the mansion shootout?", plunging players deep into the underbelly of 1980's Miami.

Players are challenged to re-enact the climactic mansion shoot-out from the original film, but in the game the player has the opportunity to help Tony fight his way out of the mansion and survive. As Tony, the player must then rebuild his fallen empire and seize vengeance on his enemies.

UBISOFT Shows "Beowulf" Some Muscle

Montreal's Ubisoft will develop/publish the video game based on Paramount Pictures' and Shangri-La Entertainment's "Beowulf", the upcoming feature film from Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis.

Neil Gaiman & Roger Avary adapted the legend for the screen.

The film is produced by Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis and Jack Rapke. Executive producers are Martin Shafer, Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman.

"Ubisoft is excited to be partnering with Paramount Pictures and Shangri-La, and the creative teams at ImageMovers, to leverage the Beowulf movie assets and storylines and extend them into the interactive video game universe," said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer of Ubisoft.

"Ubisoft has quickly become an industry leader in creating high-quality movie-based video games that deliver a compelling experience to both casual and hardcore gamers alike."

Groundbreaking director Robert Zemeckis offers a vision of the Beowulf saga that has never been told before.

In a time of heroes, the mighty warrior 'Beowulf' slays the demon 'Grendel' and incurs the wrath of its monstrous, yet seductive mother in a conflict that transforms a king into a legend.

"Beowulf" stars actor Ray Winstone in the title role and Anthony Hopkins as corrupt 'King Hrothgar'. Also starring are John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman and Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother.

"Beowulf is particularly well-suited for the video game format," adds Zemeckis.

"Not only does the film have a compelling story and strong visual style that will translate well into a game, but because the film is entirely digital, we are able to share our assets with Ubisoft. Audiences will be able to make a seamless transition between the film and the game."

"Robert Zemeckis and Ubisoft represent creative leaders in their fields and we're thrilled to be collaborating with exceptional filmmakers and game development talent," said Sandi Isaacs, Senior Vice President, Interactive & Mobile at Paramount Digital Entertainment.

"We are confident the epic story of Beowulf will not only translate in to a phenomenal movie, but also a compelling video game experience."

The game is expected to release in conjunction with the movie's planned opening, November 2007.

Fox Plugs Into "The SIMS"

20th Century Fox has acquired feature film rights to the video game "The SIMS" from Electronic Arts, setting the project up with Fox-based John Davis.

"The SIMS" is noted as the best selling PC game of all time, earning over $1.6 billion.

The live-action feature will be supervised by SIMS Studio head Rod Humble managing the creative property for Electronic Arts, based on a screenplay by Brian "Scary Movie 3" Lynch.

According to Humble, "The SIMS is what it's like to have infinite power..."

When It Raynes It Pours...

What does 'Valerio' know that he's not telling 'Rayne'?

Meanwhile, Rayne must stop a plot to smuggle a vampire king into the United States, coming face to face with the prince of a powerful clan of Greek vampires.

Later, while investigating the disappearance of two members of the 'Brimstone Society', she unleashes her 'Dark Rayne' persona...

"Lara Croft" Re/Visioned by GameTap

GameTap, a broadband entertainment network from Turner Broadcasting System, will launch the original animated series "Re\Visioned", paying homage to "Tomb Raider".

"10 Years of Tomb Raider" profiles creators, games and live-action models in the "Tomb Raider" franchise.

The doc is available at gametap.com/tombraider.

New segments will be added each week through June 7.

To create "Re\Visioned: Tomb Raider" GameTap commissioned Peter Chung, Jim Lee, Warren Ellis, Cully Hamner, Gail Simone, David Alvarez, Michael Stackpole, Brian Pulido and Christos Gage, to provide their impressions of 'Lara Croft'.

The first episode will debut July 10, with new episodes running through August 23.

There are 10 episodes in total.

"We wanted to do something special for Lara's 10th anniversary," said Larry Sparks, Eidos' head of brands management.

"Working with GameTap allowed us to tell the 'Tomb Raider' story like never before, complete with fan interviews from around the world and a first ever photo shoot that brought together the live-action 'Lara Croft' models."

Players Flock to Vancouver Gaming Summit

Sneak Peek's Michael Stevens reporting from Vancouver's Sheraton Wall Centre:

May 3rd and 4th, gamers, programmers and developers crowded Vancouver's downtown, Sheraton Wall Centre for the "Vancouver International Gaming Summit", focusing on the future of video gaming.

Key note speakers included Roy Armes of Electronic Arts, Canada (noted as top games publisher in BC), and Alexander Seropian from Wideload Games and Bungie Studios.

General theme of the Summit was to refine the global perspective on game development for new console technologies, with programmers, artists, game designers and producers the target audeince.

More than 150 game -related companies currently operate out of BC.

LucasArts Aims To "Fracture"

"Fracture" is LucasArts' and developer Day 1's upcoming third-person action game for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

"The ways that we give the players the ability to deform the terrain are completely unique," said producer David Perkinson.

"This is a living, dynamic battlefield that the player will be able to reshape completely on the fly -- terrain deformation is the key mechanic in the game."

Set in 2161, "Fracture" tells the tale of a world torn apart by global warming.

The polar ice cap has melted, flooding the Mississippi and splitting the U.S. in half.

Western states ally with Asian nations to form 'Pacifica', founded on the belief that genetic engineering holds the secret to survival, while the East becomes the 'Atlantic Alliance', embracing cybernetics.

A showdown takes place in parched San Francisco.

'Atlantic Alliance' demo expert 'Mason Briggs' is armed with heavy duty weaponry, including
'tectonic grenades', creating mountains out of molehills, the 'Bangalore' rocket launcher, the underground torpedo, vortex grenades that turn into electrical tornadoes and killer spike grenades of magma.

The game is still in development and will ship summer 2008.