We got an update on the upcoming Nordic Game Conference which is set to happen in a few weeks in Sweden. Things are definitely shaping up as the top names from the industry gather for the multidisciplinary Game Creation Sessions. Find out who they are in the full article.

One topic that this year's Nordic Game conference aims to discuss is regarding game development. To this end, Nordic's organizers have unveiled their initial line-up of professional programmers who will be giving talks at the event grounds. Details are available in the full article.

Things are definitely taking shape with the upcoming Nordic Game conference 2008 which is set to happen in two months time in Malmö, Sweden. It's been revealed that producers of Lego Star Wars and Rock Band will be the Keynote speakers in this event. Find out the details after the jump!

Blizzard's forum moderator for MMORPG World of Warcraft Thundgot announced that their company will be attending the world's largest LAN party and computer festival DreamHack Winter 2007.

The event will start on November 20 and will end on December 2 in Jonkoping, Sweden. Thundgot wasn't able to mention what specific titles Blizzard will be bringing into the event but fans can expect to see hit games WoW and StarCraft among others. More details after the jump!

Capcom has officially confirmed that Bionic Commando is being readied for a return. Sweden-based studio GRIN is currently developing a next generation version of the classic platformer for the Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Games for Windows platforms.

Former Faith No More lead singer Mike Patton, who also did the voice work for the Darkness in The Darkness (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360), will be voicing protagonist Nathan Spencer. The story takes place three years after Spencer is falsely imprisoned by his superiors. Spencer is reactivated after a large terrorist force attacks and occupies Ascension City.

Spencer will be able to the game's swing mechanic to navigate the ruins of Ascension City. Multiple routes are accessible by using swinging, rappelling, climbing and wall-walking techniques. Spencer will also be able to use his bionic arm to pummel his enemies or grab objects such as boulders and cars and throw them for long-distance attacks.

You can learn more about GRIN and Capcom's next-gen Bionic Commando by visiting its official website, accessible via the Read link below. Capcom has yet to announce a release date for this title, so keep checking back here for more updates.

The nationalistic fervor burns even hotter in EA Sports' FIFA 08 as the developers of one of the world's best-selling sports game franchises announce a collection of 50 songs from artists around the world.

Every national team represented in FIFA 08 has a corresponding song and band from their own country that ups the passion as you take on the world's elite teams in the planet's most popular ballgame.

Included in the mix are artists such as The Hoosiers (UK), Babamars (France), Bodyrox (UK), Junkie XL (Holland), and Santogold (USA), Simian Mobile Disco (UK), CSS (Brazil), Datarock (Norway), Dover (Spain), Ivy Queen (Puerto Rico), Junkie XL (Holland), Maximo Park (UK), Mexican Institute of Sound (Mexico), Peter Bjorn And John (Sweden), Planet Funk (Italy), Superbus (France), The Cat Empire (Australia), and Wir Sind Helden (Germany). Many more are in store to be discovered when the game hits.

"We’ve been working for nearly a year to deliver what we believe is the ultimate FIFA 08 soundtrack," comments Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music at EA. "These are the most songs ever in a FIFA edition representing the most countries in the history of the videogame."

EA Sports' FIFA football franchise is the longest-running football simulation to date and has sold millions of copies around the world with iterations dating back to almost two decades. FIFA 08 will be released on the Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PC, Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable.

Buy: [FIFA 08 (Wii)]

Buy: [FIFA 08 (PS3)]

Buy: [FIFA 08 (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [FIFA 08 (PC)]
Buy: [FIFA 08 (PSP)]
Buy: [FIFA 08 (DS)]

What are they playing over at Sweden? Aren't you curious? This bit of info just might save your life one day, y'know. The region's data trade firm, Dataspelsbranschen (now try saying that as fast as you can, ten times consecutively), has just released the top sales charts of video games for Sweden.

The Multiplatform chart is dominated by the MMORPG mogul that is The World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade from Blizzard. This is followed by Pokémon Diamond on the Nintendo DS. MotorStorm and R:FoM have also landed a place in the multiplatform chart, and unsurprisingly, both titles get bragging rights in the PS3 chart.

The 360 chart has Guitar Hero II fronting the musical act - and smack dab in the middle is Gears of War on fifth place. The Wii has Leon Kennedy and Ashley Graham running up to first place with Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, while Twilight Princess is galloping up to the Top 2 spot.

On the handheld side, the DS chart has both Pokemon (Diamond and Pearl) titles on top, while the PSP chart has Pro Evolution Soccer 6 kicking into the goal - Konami's sports title is enjoying the kingly spot on top.

 Multiformat

1. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
2. Pokémon Diamond (DS)
3. World of Warcraft (PC)
4. Counter-Strike 1: Anthology (PC)
5. Guitar Hero 2 Rock the 80´s (PS2)
6. The Sims 2 H&M Fashion (PC)
7. Pokémon Pearl (DS)
8. Motorstorm (PS3)
9. Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
10. Singstar 90's (PS2)

Check out the Full Article link below for each individual chart per platform!

These days, GameStop has a lot of reasons to celebrate. It's working on an industry that's growing every day, it's posting some serious numbers financially, and has recently opened its 1,000th store outside of the US.

The Texas-based game and console retailer has opened new stores recently in Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Norway to hit the thousand-store milestone. Prior to that, the company has already branched out to Ireland, Switzerland, Australia, Guam, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

GameStop points to the booming hardware sales led by Kyoto-based Nintendo with its DS handheld and Wii console. Microsoft and Sony are also pitching in with the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, respectively.

Total sales posted by the retailer last year amounted to US$ 5.32 billion and is expected to grow even more this year as hot demand continues for pole platforms. The first quarter of fiscal 2007 saw GameStop with its best quarterly performance ever with US$ 24.7 million in profits while gross sales were at an all-time high of US$ 1.279 billion.

Develop has recently announced the list of finalists nominated to receive awards offered by the Develop Industry Excellence Awards. Set for the region of UK and Europe, the awards will be held during the Develop Conference & Expo to be held this year at Brighton. Again.

 

Top of the nominees list is Realtime Worlds (Crackdown), bagging a whopping seven nominations. Evolution Studios (MotorStorm), Rare (Viva Piñata), SCEE Studio Liverpool (Formula One Championship Edition), and independent developer and publisher Introversion (DEFCON) get three nominations a-piece. Other nominees include GSC Game World (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) from Russia, EA DICE (Battlefield series) and Avalanche from Sweden, Opera from Norway, and Fishlabs from Germany.

Some of the big names nominated for the 2007 awards night include Eidos Hungary, Ubisoft France development studios, Eden Studios, and Kynogon. The fate of these nominees will be decided by a panel of almost 100 industry experts who choose only excellence over anything else. Stuart Dinsey, publisher of Develop magazine, stated:

In a period which has seen the launch of two home consoles, the continued improvement of Xbox 360 and PC software, and the mobile games market emerge as a genuine creative and commercial alternative to the more traditional games platforms, only the most excellent titles have any chance of standing out from the crowd.

Two other special awards, Development Legend and overall Grand Prix, will be given away in the awards night on July 25 to be honored to individuals, companies, or titles deserving in the eyes of the magazine's editorial staff.

 

After the downfall of the print in the North American side, Europe is beginning to feel the detrimental effects of the web-based zine and more frequent media coverage. According to a panel discussion by the region's leading game journalists, the print option just isn't viable anymore.

In Norway, Denmark and the UK, it's all the same. Prints are often outdated by the competition on the Web, and those magazines that still do exist rely heavily on advertising from sponsors such as games studios to keep afloat. Thomas Vigild, the panel moderator, explained:

They're really driven by advertisements, so it seems to me there's a really unhealthy relationship between the PRs and the people who write the magazines... We don't have magazines like in the UK where you can say, 'No way, I won't print your PR [nonsense].' That's much harder to do in Denmark because they still need the income from the advertisers.

Similar to how William "Bing" Gordon of Electronic Arts believes games will eventually be 100% Internet-based, the panel believes that even the media coverage will soon be online only. In fact, most of the panel members agreed that the magazines that do survive will be those that actually adapt.

However, certain magazines will continue to sell, because their previous reputation continues to stand and they continue to do very well in what they do. People still feel compelled to buy and own copies of those magazines, either because the layout or design is great or the content that's offered comes in a more mature and acceptable manner.

Finnish journalist Thomas Puha was one to disagree with the panel's sentiments, saying, "I do agree that print magazines are going down, but I look at it as a challenge." He believes that people will continue to read printed games coverage because of better content. "It's not that difficult to provide great content," he said.

But in order for magazines to survive, some believe that they should be willing to evolve. Susanne Moller, a contributor to one of Sweden's national newspapers, believes that if a magazine has both an online news portal to encourage game discussion and a good magazine print each month, a magazine will have adapted well to the changing times.