Some industry insiders have long suspected that LucasArts may be in the process of restructuring itself. It's all official now as layoffs have been confirmed after the release of Lego Indiana Jones (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC,  PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, DS). Details after the jump.

With the arrival of next generation consoles in the gaming market, players have been feasting their senses on high quality graphics, surround sound, and engaging gameplay.

On the other hand, developers just grit their teeth and labor on as inflation sends costs of next-gen game production costs sky rocketing. More details regarding this after the jump.

Alexander Fernandez, founding member and CEO of Streamline Studios, has been named as the keynote speaker in the Asian Games Convention. The convention will be held on September 6 and 7 at the Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Center.

Under Fernandez's directive, Streamline was able to deliver critically-acclaimed video games such as Gears of War, Saints Row, and Ghost Recon 2.

Fernandez's speech will be titled The Rising Value of Content Capital and will tackle the issues surrounding the importance of content-driven games and how outsourcing can help develop the industry.

"We view GC Asia as a key forum for addressing both the opportunities and challenges of the emerging content creation sector in Asia," said the Streamline Chief. "With game development ever more a global phenomenon, it's the perfect time to address the implications for all parties involved: creators and publishers alike."

GC Asia is the regional counterpart of the recently-concluded GC 2007 in Leipzig, Germany where talks about the industry as well as exhibits of the biggest gaming projects today were held. The event covers all forms of gaming from consoles, PCs, handhelds, and even mobile phones.

If you're interested in GC Asia and would like to participate, you can go to www.GC-asia.sg to find more information.

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.

Paul Steed, former artist for id Software's first in the Quake franchise, is now Chief Creative Officer at Exigent, an Indian game outsourcing firm. No longer drawing gorgeous pixels for your VGA screen, Steed is now educating Indians and encouraging them to make games for the western market.

We know you're probably asking, "What in the world is he doing there?" In an interview with "The Art of Gaming" haven Gamasutra, he revealed his revelation of the business of outsourcing and how he got interested in it.

After leaving Atari last September, he moved on to Exigent, and hoped to tap into the productivity potential in the Asians' love for games.

But more importantly, he sees that the future of the game industry rests on the mobile game and the PC. He said that there are more computers and cellphones in the world than consoles and "[that will] never change." In fact, he believes once his company goes from outsourcing only to part developer studio "Exigent Interactive," they will be only focused on games for the PC. He defended his position, saying, ""That’s what’s most accessible for audiences."

Steed also spoke about Sony and the PSP. And guess what, PSP folks: he says that "Sony just lost focus" on the PSP. In the defense of his opinion, he added, "They tried to do too much with it. And God, the price. You look at the PSP and you’re like, 'Hey, do you even realize your portable costs as much as Nintendo’s next-gen home system?'"

Piracy is commonly frowned upon by most members of the game industry - but not by Paul Steed. We'll let him explain his two cents worth on the (overrated?) issue of piracy:

My take on piracy is kind of weird. I know I can’t stop it, so I don’t try to stop it. I just try to create a whole fanbase. If you can buy it, buy it. I was in China and I saw a copy of my book ... my first book, translated in Chinese and it had my name on it, and I was like, 'Well, at least they put my name on it!' I don’t think people mean to steal when they pirate your stuff. I just don’t think they realize that it only increases the price.

He also said something about casual gaming, although it's a bit "nit-picky" on the fairer gender of gamers. We'll leave it to you, oh curious web surfers, to hop right to the interview and read it for yourself, via the "Read" link below.

It has been the common practice of some developers and publishers to have their products outsourced. This means that certain aspects of production are given to other companies, typically from third-world countries, to have smaller expenses (and therefore more profits). We're pretty sure we don't have to reiterate to you how low they sometimes pay third-world workers.

Regardless of your stance on this matter, it seems that it will continue - and continue to boom in the coming years. San Francisco-based firm Pearl Research forecasted the games market in China will exceed US$ 1.3 billion in 2008. The study focuses not on game development outsourcing alone but also on the country's domestic games market.

In case you're wondering about the company's findings, here are the highlights worth mentioning the most:

• Online casual games continue to gain traction and are expected to constitute 30% of the online games market by 2008. MMORPGs still constitute the largest online gaming segment in China. Top MMORPGs can generate US$ 80 million annually in China.
• Compelling and diverse game content, the low cost of playing games at an average of US$ 0.05 per hour, and the lack of entertainment options in China drove growth in the online games market.
• China will continue to flourish as a game development and outsourcing destination due to its low cost structure, large labor force and robust infrastructure. Companies can increase their production capabilities and achieve cost savings of 20% to 40% by outsourcing disciplines such as art creation.
• Outsourcing to China comes with significant challenges. These challenges include concerns over product quality and intellectual property protection, cultural differences and the competition for skilled employees.

Ask any military tactician (or your local RTS buff), and they'll tell you that one major factor any fighting force needs is a good communications link - and lack of it will leave any group, no matter how well armed or well trained, dead in the water.

The same can be said for a strong company, and with that in mind, we're happy to report that Atari won the 2006 InfoWorld 100 Award, given to companies that make use of the latest in computer 'tech to expand their business goals.

Atari's bid for this awards is their IT outsourcing project, which improved total cost of ownership by outsourcing their Linux infrastructure. What's that mean?

Atari had allocated most of their key systems to Rackspace Managed Hosting, a global provider of managed hosting services, the electronics equivalent of a secretary/housekeeper...or media manager (for the PSP buffs asking).

By doing this, and building much of their in-house systems on the open-sourced Linux OS, Atari achieved much in the way of simplifying their overall spending and human resources - the space freed up by streamlining their system allowed their in-house IT teams to focus on more important tasks like game development.  

"We realized that hosting our backend applications internally was not strategic to our core business," said Jim O'Keefe, head of IT for Atari. "With Rackspace handling our entire IT infrastructure, we have now implemented systems that are more cost efficient."