Hurry your hedgehog’s home with Hurry Up Hedgehog!

An intriguing brainteaser challenging the whole family to shrewdly manoeuvre their way to victory. Jostling against the canniest critters in the garden players must dodge hazards, out-smart their friends and use cunning to race their hedgehog’s home.

Hurry Up Hedgehog! – Race, creep, jostle and out-manoeuvre in this intriguing multi-player brainteaser for all ages.

Features: 
-  Hurry Up Hedgehog! game play dynamic is based on the popular board game Igel Ärgern (also known as Egelrace) loosely translated “Hedgehogs in a Hurry” and designed by Doris Matthäus and Frank Nestel.
-  Board layout: Consists of 6 numbered lanes each 9 columns long.
-  Single DS Multiplayer and Multi-Card Multiplayer for up 6 players.
-  6 graphic sets, and 5 rule customisation options, allowing for -32 unique ways to play
-  Stylus control througout

The Facts:
Title: Hurry Up Hedgehog!
Formats: NDS
PEGI: 3+
Publisher: Oxygen Games
Developer: Ivolgamus
RRP: £19.99
Release: 28th March 2007

AGOURA HILLS, Calif. – February 21, 2007 – THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) today announced Big Beach Sports™ is anticipated to bring outdoor sports action to beach goers worldwide in summer 2008. Currently in development exclusively for the Wii™ system, Big Beach Sports will let gamers compete in a number of exciting outdoor sports including American football, volleyball, soccer, cricket, disc golf and bocce right on the beach.

“Big Beach Sports drops players into a seaside resort setting with a wide variety of compelling outdoor sports to play and master,” said Randy Shoemaker, director, global brand management, THQ. “Sports including bocce, cricket and disc golf are making their Wii debuts and combined with the inclusion of more traditional games like soccer, American football and volleyball, Big Beach Sports will be an appealing title for the growing audience of Wii gamers.”

“The innovative Wii Remote™ controller has revolutionized sports gaming, letting us involve the player like never before,” said Steve Dauterman, senior vice president of product development, THQ. “Big Beach Sports applies the control scheme to each of the varied sports featured, letting players pick up and play the games they know and learn the ones they don’t know.”

About Big Beach Sports
Developed by HB Studios Multimedia, Big Beach Sports drops players into a seaside resort setting where up to four players can compete in sports including volleyball, soccer, American football, bocce, disc golf and cricket. The single player tournament structure encourages players to master each sport through the use of creative control combinations and real-life sport motions.

Government’s renewed commitment to the creative industries “good for the games industry” comments ELSPA
 
Tuesday 26th February/…ELSPA (the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) today warmly welcomed the Government’s launch of its new apprenticeship strategy paper ‘Creative Britain: New Talents for a New Economy’.

The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP, Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport has, in partnership with BERR and DIUS, launched the new strategy for the creative economy, and ELSPA is particularly delighted to see the games industry singled out to benefit from several specific Government commitments such as:

• The commissioning of research to better quantify the economic benefits of the creative industries with special attention to the value added by innovation in those industries.

• The commitment to identify the barriers to investment in next generation broadband. In addition to growing consumer expectations, innovative new services like online video games, video and music distribution and user-generated content are set to expand, government is to ensure that where possible it takes action to remove constraints on future development of the market.

• Increase awareness of the current R&D tax credit scheme and investigate how to make it more user-friendly for small businesses, with a particular focus on the video games industry.
• In respect of globalisation, the UK will take the lead in opposing practices that unfairly distort competition, such as working with Europe to determine whether the incentives offered by Canada to video games companies contravene WTO rules.

Paul Jackson, Director General of ELSPA, said: “The Government’s commitment to bring creative industries from the margins to the mainstream of the economy and policy thinking shows a marked change to the government’s attitude towards creative industries which can only be good for the games sector.
“We are very pleased Andy Burnham linked the idea of Film credits to support for the videogames development community. Whilst we are very different in terms of content we face many of the same issues.

“We are also glad to see Margaret Hodge looking into whether the Canadians have been anti competitive. Going to the WTO is the modern equivalent of “sending a Gunboat”… So Hurray, unfortunately this gunboat takes a decade to arrive!”
 

EA’s New Survival Horror IP Set for Halloween Launch

London, UK – February 26th, 2008 – Electronic Arts today announced that new sci-fi survival horror game Dead Space™ will be in European and North American stores on October 31st for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360™ videogame and entertainment system.

“Survival horror is about experiencing a terrifying, and deeply personal fiction,” said Executive Producer Glen Schofield. “Dead Space is being developed as a single-player thriller that delivers the chilling, claustrophobic feeling of being isolated in a dark environment, while being stalked by some truly horrific enemies. Halloween is the perfect time for EA to deliver the fear and anxiety that will keep survival horror fans up playing all night.”

Gamers can check out the new trailer and get all the latest dev team news at the newly redesigned and relaunched Dead Space website at www.deadspacegame.com. Under development at EA Redwood Shores, Dead Space is not yet rated by PEGI or ESRB.