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Epic has officially unveiled Infinity Blade, the first iPhone game to run on the Unreal Engine.

Developed by Chair Entertainment – the team behind the fabulous Xbox Live Arcade platformer Shadow Complex – it’s a sword fighting adventure game that sees you progress through a castle slashing away at all manner of nasties using the iPhone’s touch screen.

You might recognise it as Project Sword, recently shown off at an Apple event. A tech demo based on the game, entitled Epic Citadel, has been available for a few months now.

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SVP Patrick Soderlund affirms publisher’s commitment to Criterion’s high-octane racing franchise, says Black Box will handle next year’s Need for Speed.

With its combination of extreme stunts, big wipeouts, and fast cars, Criterion Games’ Burnout franchise is one of EA’s most well-regarded franchises. However, the future of the series seemed to be called into question last June, when EA said that Criterion had been tasked with the next installment in a different racing franchise, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, which is due out for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and PC next week.

EA apparently has post-Paradise plans for Burnout.

However, it would appear as if Criterion won’t be permanently taking over the Need for Speed franchise. Speaking to Eurogamer, EA senior VP of first-person shooter and racing games Patrick Soderlund indicated that it was “safe to assume” that the next installment in the Need for Speed franchise would be developed by EA Black Box.

“What developers do what, we haven’t made official,” Soderlund said of the franchise. “But the whole idea for [Need for Speed] as a brand is to have different developers work on different things, absolutely.”

Prior to being tasked with the publisher’s Skate franchise, EA Black Box was most closely tied to Need for Speed, having developed the original Hot Pursuit 2, Underground, Underground 2, Most Wanted, Carbon, ProStreet, and Undercover. Slightly Mad Studios has also contributed to the franchise, handling 2009’s Need for Speed: Shift.

With Criterion off next year’s installment in the Need for Speed franchise, Soderlund was cagey on whether the studio would simply begin development on the series’ 2012 entry or return with a new Burnout.

“What happens to Criterion in the future, we’ll see,” he said. “Obviously they’re a brilliant studio we’re going to put against something that makes sense for EA and them. We’re not ready to talk about exactly what that is at this point.”

“The way we look at it is Burnout is an IP EA owns,” he continued. “I hope to see more Burnout games in the future. But it’s about prioritising what we want to do. At this point, we haven’t made a decision to whether Burnout does this or that, but it’s not dead for sure, no.”

For more on Criterion’s latest effort, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, check out GameSpot’s previous coverage.

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Trade group says justices heard, understood all its arguments against California game law, showed little interest in one of state’s key points.

Earlier today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the fight over a California law that would prohibit the sale of some violent games to minors. After making its case to the court, the Entertainment Software Association trade group emerged confident, but stopped short of declaring victory.

The ESA finally got its day in [Supreme] Court.

“Today was a historic day not only for the computer and video game industry, but for the First Amendment,” ESA president Michael Gallagher said in a post-hearing conference call. “Twelve times in eight years, we’ve had this issue raised about whether video games are speech, and if so, to what degree of protection are they entitled. In the Court today, you heard every single argument the industry has made articulated not just by [ESA counsel of record] Paul [Smith], but by the Justices themselves.”

Smith said he was encouraged not just because the justices were lively and interested in the case, but because they “very quickly backed off” one of the state’s central arguments, that there should be a free speech exception for violence like the one for sexual content that allows states to control minors’ access to pornography.

“That didn’t seem to gain any traction at all, especially since Justice [Antonin] Scalia came out very strongly as a leader against that concept,” Smith said.

Gallagher mentioned that there was a “substantial” amount of discussion from the justices about the vagueness of the law, and he stressed there would be unintended consequences for all media if the California statute were upheld.

“For us, as the game industry, we would be discouraged from creating any content that runs the slightest risk of running afoul of the law,” Gallagher said. “And it would threaten the rights not only of minors, but for adults as well because of the content that would never be made and never find its way onto store shelves.”

Signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005 but challenged in court before it could take effect, California Assembly Bill 1179 sought to ban the sale or rental of “violent video games” to children. A “violent” game was defined as a “game in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being.” Under the law, retailers that sold such games would be subject to a $1,000 fine.

The bill would also have required “violent” video games to bear a two-inch-by-two-inch sticker with a “solid white ’18’ outlined in black” on their front covers. That’s more than twice the size of the labels that currently adorn game-box covers and display the familiar Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rating.

In 2007, a circuit court judge struck down the law as unconstitutional but admitted he was “sympathetic to what the legislature sought to do.” Last year, an appellate court judge backed up the original ruling.

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The level cap for the PC version of Borderlands has been topped up with a new update going live today, developer Gearbox has announced.

Borderlands players will now be able to climb up to level 58 or, if you’ve got The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC, level 69.

The update also brings with it a fix for DLC4 Achievement/Trophy glitches that have affected some users.

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Industry sources have expressed concern to Eurogamer that high-profile racing game Gran Turismo 5 will miss Sony’s promised “before Christmas” release date and instead come out some time next year.

One source told us that current schedules list the Polyphony Digital game as “TBC”, and that there is “not too much hope” that it will hit shop shelves this year.

Gran Turismo 5, perhaps the most anticipated PS3 game ever, was scheduled for release today.

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Publisher tells Venture Beat that layoffs are a result of August restructuring, shifting development back to Japan.

Mass turnover has been a running theme throughout the back half of 2010 as companies have alternately shed staff to lower payroll costs or collapsed entirely under the weight of sagging game industry sales. Those affected by substantial staff reductions include Rockstar Games, Sony Online Entertainment, Firaxis, Realtime Worlds, Ubisoft, LucasArts, Robomodo, EA Canada, and Io Interactive.

Splatterhouse is one title Namco Bandai developed in the West.

Now, one more big-name publisher can be added to that steadily growing list. Venture Beat reports that it has confirmed with Namco Bandai that the studio has laid off 90 employees within its US division. The layoffs are reportedly related to Namco Bandai’s reorganization of its traditional game development and casual/mobile divisions in August.

Venture Beat reports that Namco Bandai has also decided to take a large portion of the game development work once done at its San Jose, California-based studio and move it to Japan. “We are partnering with external development studios out there because that is where the game business is going,” Namco Bandai VP of marketing Carlson Choi told Venture Beat. “Our goal is to move into digital games and broaden to different platforms. The details are being sorted out now.”

Namco Bandai had not responded to GameSpot’s request for comment as of press time.

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Publisher signs five-year deal for its games to use Facebook’s virtual currency.

Facebook Credits will be EA’s exclusive method of payment within the its games hosted on Facebook.

“Since gaming has emerged as the most popular category of applications on Facebook, the natural next step is for EA to broaden its relationship with Facebook and its 500 million users,” said Barry Cottle, senior vice president and general manager for EA Interactive.

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[UPDATE] Hearing arguments, several justices appear sympathetic to law’s intent, but say it may be too vague on First Amendment grounds.

This morning, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Schwarzenegger v. EMA, the case that will decide whether a California law banning the sale of “ultraviolent” video games is constitutional. The one-hour session saw the justices of the nine-member panel express sympathy for the intent of the law, but also voice concerns about whether it violates the First Amendment.

The US Supreme Court today heard arguments about California’s controversial game law.

According to a transcript of the hearing, California Deputy Attorney General Zackery Morazzini argued the case before the Court, equating ultraviolent games to sexually explicit material, which states are allowed to restrict the sale of. Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the more conservative members of the court, responded with skepticism, pointing out that many children’s stories have violent undertones.

“Some of the Grimm’s Fairy Tales are quite grim, to tell you the truth” he said. “Are they OK? Are you going to ban them, too? … What’s next after violence? Drinking? Smoking? … Are we to sit day by day to decide what else will be made an exception from the First Amendment? Why is this particular exception OK, but the other ones that I just suggested are not OK?”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, part of the court’s liberal wing, echoed her colleague’s questioning tone, saying, “What’s the difference? I mean, if you are supposing a category of violent materials dangerous to children, then how do you cut it off at video games? What about films? What about comic books?”

However, Chief Justice John Roberts took issue with the content of Postal 2. “We do not have a tradition in this country of telling children they should watch people actively hitting schoolgirls over the head with a shovel so they’ll beg with mercy, being merciless and decapitating them, shooting people in the leg so they fall down,” he said. “I’m reading from the district court description: Pour gasoline over them, set them on fire, and urinate on them. We do not have a tradition in this country. We protect children from that. We don’t actively expose them to that.”

As the law’s author, California State Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), explained to GameSpot last week, the law at the center of the debate would criminalize sales of games the state deems “ultraviolent.” The sale of those games to minors would be punishable by a $1,000 fine under the law. The games would also need to bear special two-inch by two-inch warning labels.

A decision in the case of Schwarzenegger v. EMA is expected by the end of June 2011, when the court recesses for the summer. Entertainment Consumers Association vice president and general counsel Jennifer Mercurio told GameSpot a ruling is most likely to come between March and June.

Whatever the outcome, the legal fight that led to the Supreme Court has been long and hard-fought. Shortly after California Assembly Bill 1179 was signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005, it was challenged in court before it could take effect. In 2007, the circuit court judge who struck down the law as unconstitutional admitted he was “sympathetic to what the legislature sought to do.” Last year, an appellate court judge backed up the original ruling.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Play EA’s games on Facebook? Then you’ll be interested to know that the Facebook Credit is set to become the only virtual currency they’ll accept.

EA and Facebook just announced a five-year deal designed to create a simplified, more accessible experience, EA said.

Under it Facebook Credits will be the exclusive currency for all EA Facebook games – so when you buy virtual goods for the likes of Pet Society in the future, Facebook Credits will be your only method of payment.

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Inafune’s resignation coincided with preparations for "radical reforms" in Japan-based publisher and developer’s R&D division.

In a Q and A session discussing Capcom’s recent financial results for its second fiscal quarter, an unnamed company executive addressed the departure of Keiji Inafune, former head of research and development management, and the potential for future acquisitions of other developers.

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