Ford is sponsoring what it calls the "largest Words with Friends" game ever to promote its all-new Ford Escape. The public gaming event will take place tomorrow at 11:00pm - Wednesday at 12:00am at Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave or on the company's Facebook page via a livestream.

Sweden's Pirate Party had hoped to attend this year's Gamex game convention and had already laid the ground work to be there, but it looks like the political group was officially uninvited by organizers. Gamex is one of Sweden's biggest gaming events featuring exhibitions from all the big names in gaming including Activision, Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Nintendo. The event took place over the weekend.

The New York Academy of Sciences' Science and the City will host a special game-related event on November 9 called "The Anthropology of Online Worlds." Anthropologist Thomas Malaby and game designer Lee Guzofski will discuss how humanity shapes virtual worlds. Thomas M. Malaby is from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and Lee T. Guzofski is from MMO maker G2G Enterprises.

The whole idea behind this special event is to dissect how humanity shapes virtual worlds through relationships, functional economies, complex societies, and rich cultures.

Video game publication Kill Screen and game publisher Capcom have teamed up for some Halloween hijinks called "Fright Club." The event is a celebration of Capcom's popular zombie games, but offers a strong line-up of indie music groups for attendees to enjoy.

The Tokyo Game Show is over and organizers have released the final attendance numbers, among other information. According to organizers, a total of 222,668 people attended the event during its four day run, up from last year's number of 207,000 attendees.

A new single day attendance record was set as well on September 17 when 86,251 showed up to take part on the festivities of the opening day. Sunday attendance was down slightly to 83,744 people, compared to last year.

Tandem Events, organizers of the UK game industry trade shows Develop and Evolve, has put out a call for speakers for two 2011 conferences later this year. Speaker submissions are now open for Develop in Liverpool on November 24 and Evolve in London on December 1. The deadline for submitting a talk for either event is October 4, 2011.

David Brevik, the current Gazillion Entertainment COO and founder of both Blizzard North and Flagship Studios, will deliver a keynote address at Unity Technologies' Unite 11 conference. Brevik is best known as the co-creator and lead programmer for Diablo and Diablo II. His keynote address, "To Hell and Back Again: How the Video Game Industry Has Changed Since Diablo," will cover the emergence of social games, digital distribution, the free-to-play business models, and what the future holds for the industry.

Organizers of the 4th annual Game::Business::Law Summit passed along a note to let everyone know that registration for its 2012 event is now open. The next event dedicated to discussing the intersection of the video game industry and legal issues takes place January 25 – January 26, 2012. The event will be held at Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of Law and is hosted by The Guildhall at SMU, SMU’s Dedman School of Law and The Center for American and International Law.

The Gamification Summit announces the world’s first program offering a Gamification Design Certificate. This certificate will be offered at the conference September 15-16 in New York City. Attendees will have the opportunity to jump into interactive workshops featuring new curriculum designed by summit chair and industry expert Gabe Zichermann, in consultation with various industry partners.

UK video game industry trade group UKIE announced this week that the London Games Festival has been cancelled this year. This is the first time in six years that the annual event has not run. The group said that the event will return in 2012 to coincide with the Olympics. Further, UKIE promises major collaboration with other groups - such as TIGA - on next year's event to make sure that it happens.

If you are one of those poor souls that is hopelessly addicted to all things Minecraft, then you'll be glad to know that Markus Persson will launch the full and final release version of the game at a special event dubbed MineCon. the event will take place at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas this November.

Minecraft Developer Markus Persson (aka Notch) will be on hand to officially release the game at the event. Persson mentioned the idea of a special conference back in May. The event is scheduled for November 18.

PAX Prime organizers today revealed the various panels and discussions planned for PAX Dev on Wednesday, August 24 and Thursday, August 25 at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel. Some of the speakers and panelists taking part in PAX DEV include John Scott Tynes of Microsoft, Mike Selinker of Lone Shark Games, Daniel James of Three Rings, Chris Hecker of Spy Party, and many others.

Tickets are on sale for Activision's first annual event dedicated to Call of Duty, Call of Duty XP, at www.callofduty.com/xp. The event will take place September 2 - 3 in Los Angeles. Call of Duty XP tickets are now on sale. Tickets are $150 and are valid for both days of the event. In addition, buying a ticket gives you admission to all events and activities with the exception of food and drink. Naturally you'll have to pay for your own travel to and from the event. You can buy up to two tickets, the proceeds of which will go to the Call of Duty Endowment, a non-profit organization that helps returning veterans find employment, establish careers and transition back to civilian life. You must be 18 years old or older to attend.

id Software revealed that its QuakeCon forums have been hacked and warned users that they may want to change their login information to avoid any hassles:

"In recent days, a hacker carried out an unlawful intrusion of the old forums.quakecon.org site, compromising usernames and passwords," the company said on the QuakeCon website.

"While we have taken appropriate steps to protect the new forums from attack, we recommend anyone using their old credentials on another site to change their passwords immediately."

"We regret any inconvenience this may have caused, and suggest you migrate to the new forums - which will be live shortly - to discuss QuakeCon 2011."

Electronic Arts founder and Digital Chocolate CEO Trip Hawkins has accused Nintendo of presiding over what he calls a "feudal dark age" in the industry in which developers "don't own the land that they are tilling." He has a point, but Nintendo certainly isn't the only platform holder guilty of that.. At GamesBeat in San Francisco today, Hawkins talked at length about the power of platform holders and how they often limit creativity in comparison to open platforms.

"Look at the world wide web and how many great companies have been built on that open platform," he said. "Nintendo is a great, amazing company, but how many companies have been built on the back of Nintendo's platform in the past 25 years?"

Organizers of the Game Education Summit announced that the annual event dedicated to best teaching practices for game development education has been postponed to coincide with the Serious Play Conference. The summit, which was meant to take place last week in Redmond, Washington, was rescheduled to August 24th and 25th. The venue - the Digipen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Washington - remains the same.

The good news is that attendees can take advantage of both conferences for the same cost of admission, according to the organizers.

Speakers scheduled for the summit include Tom Higgins from unity, Steve Reid from Ubisoft's Red Storm studio, and David Della-Rocca from Autodesk. More information on the summit is available here.

Source: GameCareerGuide

The third annual Gathering of Video Game Legends and the fifth annual 2D Game Development Awards will take place June 25 (tomorrow) at the Anaheim Campus of Westwood College (1551 S. Douglass Road, Anaheim, California). Every year the college brings together the interactive entertainment industry’s most accomplished video game professionals to share their experiences on getting started in the business. Attendees get to interact with these legends, play video games, attend workshops, enjoy keynote speeches and learn about a career in the video game industry.

Edinburgh Interactive is set for August 11 and 12 in Edinburgh, Scotland (The Radisson Blu Hotel), and organizers say there are four reasons why those in the region won't want to miss it this year.

Sean Dromgoole, CEO of Some Research and Edward Williams from BMO Capital Markets will discuss their different points of view on recent developments in the games industry in the area of social gaming. The event will also host two Gamification sessions. The first is "Gamification: Building Games - the Mechanics, Rewards and Influences," and will feature a presentation from Kam Star, Chief Play Officer at Playgen, along with James Allsopp, Playgen’s Games Designer and in-house Psychology expert.

Video Games Live will hold its 200th show during E3 in Los Angeles in early June. To celebrate this milestone organizers saying they are "pulling out all the stops" with some special performances from some of history's most popular games.

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced the 17 works of video game inspired art that will be exhibited at the  2011 Into the Pixel (ITP) event. Now in its eighth year, the ITP – a collaboration between the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) – is the only juried art exhibition that brings together experts from the traditional fine art world and the interactive entertainment industry to display and discuss the art of video games. The 2011 Into the Pixel collection will be unveiled and presented at the annual E3 Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 7-9, 2011, in the Concourse Foyer.

Into the Pixel 2011 Winners are listed below (by exhibit name, game it was inspired by and the artist responsible for the work):

Just a friendly reminder that the second batch of tickets for BlizzCon 2011 go on sale to the public tonight at 7 p.m. Pacific Time through the online Blizzard Store for $175 USD each. Those interested in grabbing a ticket will want to watch the BlizzCon ticket sales page. Tickets will sell out fast, so get them while you can. Blizzard says that the first batch of tickets that went on sale last Saturday sold out quickly. This is not surprising news.

In addition to the two batches of general-admission tickets, approximately 200 special event tickets will go on sale May 28. These tickets entitle Blizzard fans access to an exclusive pre-BlizzCon dinner to benefit the Children's Hospital of Orange County. They go on sale Saturday, May 28, at 10 a.m. PT for $500 USD each and include admission into BlizzCon.

In case you didn't know or need a reminder, the ESA issued a press release today pointing out that the Electronic Entertainment Expo returns to Los Angeles in early June. The annual event dedicated to the interactive entertainment industry takes place June 7 - 9 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The press release was more about the impact the event has on Los Angeles than the industry.

The event expects to draw "tens of thousands" of attendees which will result "in millions of dollars for Los Angeles." According to the ESA, 28,000 hotel room nights have been booked to date and an estimated $25.1 million in revenue will be generated. Because of the sheer volume of attendees, many major Downtown Hotels as well as properties in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood will also generate revenue from the show.

Naturally, city officials are delighted with E3's affect on local businesses:

Bethesda announced that registration for QuakeCon 2011 will open on May 26 at 5pm PT (8pm ET for those of us on the other side of the country). Players looking to take the trip to Texas for the annual event dedicated to all things Quake-related can register online for exhibit hall access, "Bring Your Own Computer" events, and for various premium packages.

QuakeCon 2011 will take place from August 7 - 11 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas.

More details will be revealed soon, according to Bethesda, but you can expect some reveals of games from Bethesda and its wholly-owned development studios - most notably, id Software.

You can register here at the appointed time and date.

Source: Shacknews

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has opened the first e-G8 forum in Paris, with leaders in technology such as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Wikipedia's founder Jimmy Wales, News Corp chief executive Rupert Murdoch, BBC director general Mark Thompson, and Google's Eric Schmidt set to give talks about Internet technology.

But even as the French president is excited to be thoe host of the technology gathering, many critics have said that the gathering is more about control than internet innovation. Attempting to address some of those concerns, Sarkozy said that the Internet enables and fosters the ability to engage in revolution without all the blood and death:

"The global revolution that you incarnate is a peaceful one. It did not emerge on battlefields but on university campuses," he said.

IndieCade, the International Festival of Independent Games, announced that submissions are now being accepted for its 2011 Festival. Past winners have included games such as Braid, N, and Humans vs. Zombies. The Indie Game Showcase @ E3 Expo (June 7 -9) will include highlights from past showcases and preview the upcoming IndieCade Festival, scheduled to invade Culver City, California October 6-9. The deadline for submissions is May 31.

The festival program is open to the public and includes gallery exhibitions from finalist games, artist presentations, workshops, and street games. A professional conference will feature previews of new works, sessions and workshops with game makers and industry leaders. Additional activities include social events, evening programs, special VIP and networking events, night games, city-wide gameplay, and a Red Carpet Award Ceremony.

The seventh annual Games for Health Conference is one week away and organizers are reminding anyone that wants to attend that the registration period is almost over. The three day event dedicated to the convergence of games and the medical field takes place May 17-19 in Boston, MA.

Over the course of the annual three day conference over 120 speakers will participate in over 100 talks covering a variety of topics including medical simulations, serious games, game research, and new video game technologies that are being used to advance the healthcare field in the real world.

Speakers include Dr. Martin Seligman from The Positive Psychology Center (University of Pennsylvania); Dr. Roni Zeiger from Google; Shellie Pfohl; Executive Director of The President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition; and many more. The event will also offer two networking receptions, contests, group activities, fourth annual Games Accessibility Day, various workshops, and more.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum's "The Art of Video Games" exhibit selections have been chosen, with some familiar titles making the cut. Chosen by an online vote, the community chose such titles as The Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, BioShock, Uncharted, and Shadow of the Colossus. Five games will be playable at the exhibition which will run through September 30 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

The exhibits will be divided up by eras. The full list can be found below:

Era 1: Start!

• Atari VCS: Pac-Man, Pitfall, Space Invaders, Combat
• Colecovision: Donkey Kong, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, Zaxxon, Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator
• Mattel Intellivision, Tron: Maze-Atron, Advanced Dungons and Dragons, Star Strike, Utopia

Era 2: 8-Bit

The LOGIN Conference has added a Facebook game developer "boot camp" to its annual Seattle area event. The Facebook Game Developer Boot Camp is a day-long track that will take place Wednesday, May 18th. The "track" covers topics such as current tools for metrics, monetization and other significant topics important to social game developers. The Facebook Game Developer Boot Camp is open to all LOGIN Conference attendees, but those interested in attending will need to reserve their spot when registering for the conference (space is limited).

Organizers of the Festival of Games say that international participants officially outnumber local participants. Festival of Games will take place on 28-29 April in Utrecht, The Netherlands. More than 60 percent of this year’s Festival of Games participants are international visitors coming from all over the world including (but not limited to) Jordan, Korea, Russia, Canada and many other locations.

During the Festival of Games, Deloitte will present a research report with market data on the Dutch games industry. In addition, Newzoo will present the first results of the 2011 National Gamers Surveys. The report promises to provide key insights on consumer behavior in Western and Emerging markets such as Russia, Mexico and Brazil.

DigiPen Institute of Technology announced that the first ever Serious Play Conference is seeking speakers to talk about creating serious games that help various industries and educational needs. The conference will be held Tuesday – Thursday, Aug. 23 – 25, 2011 at the DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Washington.

DigiPen says that its Serious Play conference aims to push serious game development to a higher competency – building games that deliver predictable results." They also promise that heads of corporate, military, health care programs, senior educators, top simulation and education developers, strategic hardware and software vendors and industry leaders will be in attendance.