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Browser-based gaming company formerly known as GarageGames calls it quits; Torque middleware engine support to continue.

InstantAction’s efforts to elevate the quality of Web browser-based gaming have come to an end. Today, the company previously known as GarageGames announced that it would be shutting down its operations, with its eponymous online gaming portal already offline. However, InstantAction plans to continue supporting its proprietary game engine Torque as it searches for a buyer.

InstantAction’s Tribes successor Legion was among the portal’s offerings.

“Today, InstantAction informed employees that it will be winding down operations,” Torque game engine operations director Eric Preisz wrote on the company’s official blog. “While we are shutting down the InstantAction.com website and Instant Jam game, Torquepowered.com will continue to operate while InstantAction explores opportunities with potential buyers for Torque. We thank all of our past and current customers for their support.”

InstantAction last snatched headlines in April, when it announced a new online distribution service that allows for embedding games nearly anywhere on the Internet, including blogs and social networking sites. As with streaming video, users can jump into a game instantly, instead of spending time downloading the software. However, games still must meet case-by-case minimum hardware specifications.

The Oregon-based developer’s InstantAction online gaming portal launched in 2007 with the promise of delivering console-quality gaming through an Internet Web browser. The portal played home to a number of titles, including Cyclomite, from Bungie Studios founder Alex Seropian’s Wideload Shorts.

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If someone came to me and said “We need some music for the new Call of Duty: Black Ops TV marketing campaign” I don’t think I’d ever consider something like this. …

Above: Lovecraftian horror themes, inter-dimensional travel, and an RPG trilogy along the lines of Mass Effect are expected from director Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming game project

Sources close to film director Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming videogame project with THQ have said that the upcoming title will actually be an RPG trilogy. According to MMOMFG, the director of Pan’s Labyrinth visited the office of development studio Volition in Illinois, where it was revealed that the series will be “along the lines of Mass Effect.” Other details from sources confirm that the trilogy will have Locecraftian horror themes and that the plot will involve inter-dimensional travel… …

Everything you never wanted to know about Call of Duty: Black Ops, the best new franchises of this console generation, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, and the Transformers drop by to celebrate BRETT’S BIRTHDAY! WARNING: TDar 127 is long, angry, and drunk, yet it’s the perfect background noise for a weekend of wall-to-wall CoD; BlOpping…   …

EA has joined forces with three indie developers – Trapdoor, Borne Games, and Vanguard Games have all signed deals with the publisher, which will be releasing one game from each on XBLA, PSN, and PC next year.

That’s great, but now let’s see which developer is the most excited to be working with EA. GO! …

Above: Can retailers convince publishers to stop using Steam? Or will brick and mortar stores be left for dead?

We use Steam a lot. Honestly, we do. And we know we’re not the only ones. As of October 18, the download service boasts over 30 million active user accounts, which some estimate accounts for 80% of the digital downloads market. But not everyone is happy with the platform’s steady success… …

Internet hype is a silly thing. Countdown clocks are bad enough, but now we have trailers for trailers, teasers for trailers for teasers for trailers, teasers for countdown clocks for trailers for teasers for countdown clocks, and today, an announcement for an announcement. Which essentially is an announcement, just with a pre-emptive double dip. It’s the publicity version of standing between two mirrors and seeing your reflection extended out into infinity in both directions.

But regardless of nonsensical multi-layering of hype, THQ’s previously-mentioned-by-50-Cent Saints Row movie is soon to become official. …

Megapublisher allies with three small shops to bring Gatling Gears, The Fancy Pants Adventures, and Warp to consoles.

Last night at a San Francisco event, Electronic Arts announced it would be the sole publisher of BioWare’s massively multiplayer role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic. Standing in the shadow of that announcement were the revelations that the megapublisher had signed deals under its EA Partners program with three smaller studios to release their indie games as downloadable titles.

Ooooh, Fancy! (Pants, that is.)

First up is Vanguard Games, the shop behind Greed Corp that was cofounded by two founding members of Guerilla Games in September. EA will publish the outfit’s upcoming title, Gatling Gears, a twin-stick shooter set in the steampunk sci-fi Mistbound universe. In the game, players will dodge sinkholes, fight off walker units, and battle against clans in an effort to defeat an evil corporation. It is due out on the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, and the PC next spring.

Next up is Borne Games, the New Orleans-based shop behind the popular Flash games The Fancy Pants Adventures: World 1 and World 2. With its EA deal, the indie developer will bring both platformers, which follow a stick figure sporting bright yellow pantaloons, to XBL and PSN next spring. The new game, called simply The Fancy Pants Adventures, will combine the first two titles with an all-new game that has an original story and world.

Last but not least, EA announced it was partnering with Quebecois studio Trapdoor. EA will publish the outfit’s game Warp, a top-down stealth action title with a heavy emphasis on puzzle-solving. The game will be released on XBL, PSN, and PC next summer.

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Microsoft might soon start using its Kinect technology to automatically customise content displayed on the Xbox 360 dashboard depending on who is using the system.

Gamasutra reports that Dennis Durkin of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business told the BMO Capital Markets conference in New York that Kinect was opening up some surprising opportunities for the platform holder.

“I think what we’ve found is the core gamer may have been the person who brought the box into the house, but as you add new experiences and broader content choices for other members of the house, they come and use the system. We can track some of that usage as it relates to broader family members in the house.

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Bethesda parent company says upstart Swedish studio from founders of Starbreeze is working on AAA game using id Tech 5.

Last week, Swedish business records revealed that ZeniMax Media had acquired Uppsala-based MachineGames, a fledgling development house started by the founders of Chronicles of Riddick maker Starbreeze Studios. While all parties kept quiet about the acquisition at the time, ZeniMax today officially confirmed its latest pickup. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

MachineGames will assemble its first game using id Tech 5.

For its first project, MachineGames will be working on a new “AAA” title using id Tech 5, the game engine behind id Software’s upcoming Rage. It will also serve as the technology behind the long-awaited Doom 4.

MachineGames is the latest in a string of notable acquisitions for ZeniMax. This year has already seen the company acquire Arkane Studios and Shinji Mikami’s Tango GameWorks to fill out a roster of studios also including Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls maker Bethesda Game Studios, as well as Doom and Quake developer id Software. The company also has an online division currently working on an unnamed massively multiplayer project and recently received $150 million in funding from a private equity company.

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