Just yesterday, we reported that Crytek established a new studio in Budapest, Hungary, to work on a new game which is apparently a non-FPS title. Over at Next-Gen.biz, Crytek engine business manager Harald Seely talked about their new studio and their drive to think outside the FPS genre that has made them famous.

When asked about their new studio, Seely said that "we think that there are a lot of other interesting opportunities out there... We haven't really scratched the surface of [what the] CryENGINE can do. We want to explore those opportunities." No other details were revealed about Crytek Budapest's game-in-development.

But he did talk about Crytek's move to open house in Budapest. He said that:

Eastern Europe as a source of game development has already proven itself... It's already growing very quickly, a lot of companies have put studios in the East. A lot of them aren't really publicized. A lot of the work is in the mode of outsourcing. But I think as they become more and more experienced with the tools we have today, there's going to be a lot of original ideas coming out of there as well.

With regards to Crytek's alleged plans to dish out something good on the PS3, this is all Seely had to say:

How's our PlayStation 3 project coming? I wasn’t aware we announced any PlayStation 3 project yet.

In case you have forgotten, this rumor was revived due to a job listing for a PS3 programmer on Crytek's official website. Earlier, Crytek CEO Cervat Yerli just said "nope, no comment on this" when asked about Crytek's PS3 plans. Crytek's lips are still sealed, so you guys could still speculate away.

We have recently reported that Crytek is working on a new game that would be using the CryENGINE 2. Of course, creating new games is huge task which would need a lot of talented people, so it is no surprise that Crytek has recently opened a new studio in Hungary. The new studio joins the company's already tried-and-tested Frankfurt-based studio and their up-and-coming Kiev, Ukraine studio. Crytek honcho Avni Yerli had this to say:

After considering a number of different options over the last two years, we chose to open our next studio in Budapest because it is both a wonderful city in which to work and live, and because we were able to draw on a significant pool of very qualified and experienced game development talent already in place there.

Crytek said that this move is a good way for them to widen their horizons and develop for a "new gaming genre" without jeopardizing the company's growth and expansion. This move is also seen as a way to give their CryENGINE 2 further leverage. As to what kind of games Crytek Budapest is gonna churn out, well, just keep checking us out for updates on that.

As much as we appreciate Guy Wilday's insights and opinions about SEGA Rally (Xbox 360, PS3, PC), it's now time to get dirty with these three recently released artworks of the game. Here, check out how detailed they have become, and make sure to click on them to appreciate them more:

   

SEGA Rally is still stamped with an "Autumn 2007" release date. In case you didn't know, this game is being developed by Sega Racing Studio and Mr. Wilday is one of their directors. If you wanna know more about the game, we suggest you check out its features in one of our earlier articles. We'll be dishing out more on this game as more details and goodies come our way.

Rosie O'Donnell may be hugging the limelight lately because of her future (or lack thereof) in The View, her feud with the Donald, and her usual spats with her conservative co-host, Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Now this time around, she's on the news for a good reason.

Electronic Arts announced recently that their casual gaming portal, Pogo, has teamed up with O'Donnell to launch "Pogo Cares Benefiting Rosie's For All Kids Foundation".The two-month program is designed to raise awareness of kids in need within the Pogo Community of 11 million players. Well, at least they're doing something helpful now.

Rosie also said that she "played a lot of videogames as a kid and now I am an avid Club Pogo member and have been for quite awhile...I'm online almost every night! It is a great way to relax and stay in touch with people out of state. There is a grandmother in Kansas that I play with ... she has no idea who I am. We talk for hours about her grandkids and her latest projects. I love it."

To continue the lovefest, Pogo's vice president and general manager, Karen Schulman had this to say about this philanthropic team-up:

The Pogo community has a history of coming together to raise money and awareness to help those in need. We are very excited to work with Rosie O'Donnell and her 'For All Kids' Foundation to support causes that are important to Pogo players, such as education and early childhood development.

Putting the SIXAXIS comment behind him and focusing on their upcoming SEGA Rally game (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC), Guy Wilday talked to website Spong about the game and what gamers could expect from it.

The game is being developed by SEGA's new studio (it's being developed in the United Kingdom by SEGA Driving Studio) so it must be daunting for Wilday and his crew to develop a prized franchise right? Well, Wilday has a different opinion about it. He says that developing SEGA Rally is actually fun and exciting mainly because of its esteemed and successful history. Optimists, that's what we need.

As to how many tracks could we expect from the game, they are still undecided in that department. He explains that:

We could quite easily have 100 different tracks, but if players didn’t feel like they were racing bumper to bumper in frantic races with mud splattering everywhere we wouldn’t have achieved delivering a proper SEGA Rally experience. However, we’re confident that we’ll deliver that and also have a varied selection of tracks for players to race on.

That's not the only game aspect that's in the fine-tuning department - Wilday divulges that the race modes, locations, and the range of cars are still being worked on. He also highlights the importance of the computer AI, which he believes is one of the aspects that people remember about SEGA Rally. The crew is hard at work to ensure that the AI is a perfectly balanced. He refused to reveal features that will be in place to increase the game's longevity (downloadable content like new cars, modes, stages etc). But he did say that:

There will be online for both PS3 and XB360. Can’t go into too many details now, but we’ll certainly have online races.

You could check out the word-per-word interview by clicking on the Read link below.

Alten8 has recently confirmed their latest Nintendo DS title, dubbed as Wordsnake. Alten8 has inked a deal with Pixel Magick to bring this game not only to the DS, but also to the PC and the Nintendo Wii. Pixel Magick will be working closely with Alten8 to make sure that the game would retain its fun gameplay and also to ensure that this next Wordsnake outing would also have something new to offer.

In case the name of the game didn't give it away for you, Wordsnake's aim is to build words of 3-8 letters from the random selection on the tile rack, and reach a target score before the time runs out. New features are the ability to randomly shuffle letters and move them to a second tile rack to help with the word making.

As the player progresses to each new level, they will have less time to complete the level, the target score will increase, and extra walls will appear that restrict the playable area. So whoever said that word-games are boring may have to think twice (or not...).

No release dates for now, but here are some DS screens and packshot. If you're interested with this game, we advice you to keep checking out QJ for future updates.

   

Last February, independent auditing firm Goldstein Goulb Kressler expressed their concern about Majesco Entertainment's financial health. Now, it seems that Majesco in a not-so-pleasant situation.

Majesco, known as the publisher of games like Cooking Mama and Psychonauts among many others, revealed that they received a second notification from Nasdaq stating the company has not met the US$ 35 million market value of listed securities requirement for continued listing.

Gibberish as this sounds, what this means is that Majesco's common stock is subject to delisting from the Nasdaq Capital Market unless the company requests a hearing before a Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel. In other words, this spells trouble as the fate of the company is in the hands of the Nasdaq panel. It's a sad thing when you're not in control of the situation, is it not?

The company is dead set on requesting a hearing, but of course there are no guarantees that the Panel will give in to their request for continued listing.

In our previous report about Tomb Raider: Anniversary (PC, PSP), we mentioned that the game was reportedly coming on May 25. That date is still far from now so while checking out GameTrailers, we found two new videos to share with you - one is the Egyptian Underworld Trailer, the other is the first Developer Diary. Check out the Egyptian Underworld trailer first, go on and click play.

Yeah, seeing Lady Croft in action still takes some of the QJ bloggers' breath away. Anyhow, what's weird in this video is that in the end, it says that the game is coming on June 2007 and not on May. Hmmm, maybe the developer diary with Lulu LaMer and Jason Botta could clarify that.

What are you waiting for? Check out the full article and watch the Tomb Raider: Anniversary developer diary!

After launching Episode 5: Reality 2.0, the rabbit and dog duo is back! Telltale and Gametap have unveiled the first details of the season finale of the PC game Sam and Max. The finale is entitled - Sam and Max: Season 1 Bright Side of the Moon. After dealing with a viral video game which hold its players hostage, Sam and Max discovered that the local mind control scheme has grown to global proportions - the media, mafia, the U.S. government, and the worldwide web are now linked to it.

The duo would now have to storm a weird lunar paradise and come face-to-face with the plot's mastermind. The question now is, will they succeed? Well, we here are rooting for the good guys to finish first. Anyhow, we have here six screens of Episode 6, plus a teaser video. Feel free to check them out.

The last time we reported about the Prince of Persia movie, "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time", we said that Jerry Bruckheimer had the movie franchise under his wing for quite some time now and that the movie is well on its way to 2008. Now, although the producer has been busy with his Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, he was still able to secure a director and a release date for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Bruckheimer has teamed up with the director of Bad Boys I and II, The Rock, and Pearl Harbor - none other than Michael Bay. And if before, we mentioned that the movie based on the game would be out on 2008, well folks, you'd have to wait a little longer. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is slated for a Summer 2009 release.

Movie site, IESB, mentioned that they have confirmed with Disney Studios that they are hoping that Bay will indeed take on the directorial chores for the movie when he is done working with another movie - Transformers. As for what Jordan Mechner has to say about the movie:

Rather than do a straight beat-for-beat adaptation of the new videogame, we're taking some cool elements from the game and using them to craft a new story - much as 'Pirates' [of the Caribbean] did with the theme park ride.

We'll update you about the movie as more info comes our way.