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.

Epic Games CEO and founder Tim Sweeney expressed his opinion on the flagging state of the PC gaming industry. In an interview conducted by TG Daily, he pointed out the different problems the PC marke t is facing as well as some possible solutions the industry can take if it wants to make some headway against its rivals. You can check out the rest of the interview by reading our full article, accessible through the "read more" link below.

Intel might have missed out on the current gen consoles, thus allowing IBM to lend its hand to the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii. No doubt, IBM has proven itself to be more than capable of moving mountains - or at least map interstellar space with the help of eight PS3 units. But will this faze Intel? Not by a long shot. They approached video games console makers and presented their microchips that could be incorporated into future consoles. Read more for details from Intel's chief tech officer. Hint: it's about motion-sensing and markets.

To conclude the monumental public video game trade show, E for All Expo 2007, the sponsors of the event personally went out and thanked the 18,000 attendees who went to the L.A. Convention Center and checked out the many vendors who showed off their games. The event ran from October 17 to October 21 and featured many games that everyone was looking forward to before their official release dates.

The South Hall was where over 70 of the biggest names in the video game industry featured their latest and upcoming games to the people who mattered the most to them - the gamers themselves. Names like Nintendo, THQ, Electronic Arts, Intel, Namco Bandai, Konami and many more gave gamers a chance to play games that they can't even find in game stores yet (curse you, lucky people!).

Highly anticipated games such as Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii and Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots were received with a lot of excitement as gamers were given a chance to test out the playable builds for them during the event.

However, this won't be the last time gamers will be able to see a collection of gaming companies this big; the event is already planned again for 2008, specifically in late August. The organizers wished everyone the best and hoped to see them again next year.

"Made in Vietnam" could be the newest thing you'll see printed on the back of your iPhones or Nintendo Wiis in the near future. Taipei-based Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), the world's largest contractor for electronics, announced that they will be expanding their operation to Vietnam.

Responsible for the production of products such as Apple's iPhone and iPod, as well as Nintendo's Wii console, Foxconn decided to continue to diversify their plant operations to Vietnam to maintain their cost-efficient business practices within the most efficient manufacturing area outside of China.

A deal was already signed last August 29 with Foxconn's chief executive Terry Gou and Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment investing a US$ 5 billion contract into various high tech and supporting industries projects. Also, Foxconn has invested US$ 160 million in two plants in the Que Vo Industrial Zone, as well as hiring about 500 local university graduates with plans of hiring up to a maximum of 300,000 employees.

Tung Kim Nguyen, a partner at Indochina Capital, had this to say about Vietnam:

Vietnam is the next outsource manufacturing centre of Asia, this is because of a China-plus-one strategy that manufacturers are adopting and a response to anti-dumping suits that will be hitting the Chinese point of origin manufacturers hard over the next few years

Intel has already had their eye on Vietnam for some time. They announced that they would build a US billion plant near Ho Chi Minh, prompting other manufacturing giants such as Toshiba and Matsushita to pledge future investments.

No less than Microsoft founder and Chairman Bill Gates, Panasonic President Toshihiro Sakamoto and Intel CEO Paul Otellini will keynote the 2008 International CES organized by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) in Las Vegas Nevada on January 7-10 of next year.

This was announced by the CEA as it ushers in the latest that the industry has to offer for people who like to live off the high-end. The show is known as a stage for previews of upcoming products and campaigns of each firm.

Gates is scheduled to kick things off with a pre-show talk discussing the state of the computer world and how his company is pushing it forward. Sakamoto and Otellini are set to do similar speeches as the first day progresses.

Some 2,700 exhibitors will show off their latest gear encompassing some 30 areas which include entertainment, wireless connectivity, audio and gaming. Products such as gaming consoles, TVs, notebook computers and portable audio are just some of the many devices which have been shown off in the past CES gatherings.

Although the game industry finds that it's too early to tell, the business world has already made their stand on the console race. To the business moguls that swim in oceans of profit, the console wars has already been decided.

And Fortune magazine, the iconic media vein that touches each of the Fortune 500 companies, announced the winner: the Nintendo Wii.

In fact, issue number 10 dated June 11, 2007 of Fortune has not only given their two million dollars-worth on the whole console wars issue, it was even plastered all over the issue's front page. The story was entitled "How Wii Won" and was followed by the subs "The Secret of Nintendo's Surprise Mega-Hit."

Obviously not oblivious to the fast growing games industry, the business magazine dived into an in-depth analysis of Nintendo's "secret formula" that made the profit-makers tender their decision of the game console race. There were many points that Jeffrey M. O'Brien reported, including financial and business relationships and outlooks.

Now everyone knows that the Wii sells out like nothing ever seen before, but what people didn't know is that Nintendo has been gaining a US$ 50 profit per Wii sold and that is largely attributed to a ingeniously invented device that probably costs no more than $ 15 to make: the Wii remote.

Click on Full Article to read on Fortune's coverage of the Wii-markable Nintendo console.

 

In a recent report by IGN, the Leipzig Games Convention, also known as the Games Convention Developers Conference, has announced that exhibitors have already booked another 40% of the allotted floor space for the exhibition halls at the Leipzig Business Center - venue of the 2007 main event in Europe.

And apparently, the increased number of the game industry entities aren't from new developers, as companies from the Convention in the previous year have also registered again for this year, with plans for much larger occupancy. As of publication, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Take Two Software, Konami, Eidos, SEGA, Vivendi and Disney have been officially announced to have signed on for the show.

And that's not including computer industry giant Intel, who have signed on to be the primary sponsor of the 2007 GCDC, following a previous announcement by the company. Although it is unclear as to how many companies and how much space has already been booked of the multi-hall exhibition venues, this development three months before the opening at Leipzig showcases its potential to outshine the U.S. E3 and contend with Japan's Tokyo Game Show.

"The GC continues its success story again in 2007. The current registration figures for the Business Center prove that Leipzig is the industry's most important fixture, including for international exhibitors," concluded Peggy Schönbeck, project director of the Games Convention.

There's been talk of the upcoming E3 being downsized by the just-held Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2007. Reasons vary: this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo will be an invitation-only event, and the GDC saw a 32 percent rise of attendance.

We've all witnessed so much hype for this year's GDC, all with good reason. The GDC people worked hard to bring out a good show; GDC boss Jamil Moledina and his crew brought a good load of dealmaking, press conferences and industry parties to go around in the event.  It also helped that they were able to secure the interesting hands-on hardware workshops with Microsoft and Intel, as well as hotshot keynote speakers such as Shigeru Miyamoto, Phil Harrison and Cliff Bleszinkski.

Said GDC boss Moledina:

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Our alumni attendees uniformly felt it was the best GDC they've attended in recent years, citing the high quality and relevance of sessions, while newcomers were saying it was the best event in the game industry where they made connections and deals with all the key people they now had access to.

More than 16,300 people and 260 exhibitors attended this year's GDC, seeing a rise of 30 and 32 percent, respectively. Everybody's expecting an even bigger attendance at next year's GDC, but as Moledina cites, it's not the size of the event, but the quality that matters. This may exactly be why the usual E3 people are moving to the GDC.

We mean really...can it? Looking at it from afar, it's basically a battle between the Wii controller against the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360's graphics powerhouses. In an interview, the man from Redmond himself stated that Nintendo wasn't Microsoft's biggest competitor in the game console industry - it was Sony.

Confident in the performance turn-out of the 360 (especially after all the improvements), Bill Gates decided instead that the gauntlets should be thrown down for the similarly performing PS3.

But Clayton Christensen, a professor of Harvard Business School and author of "The Innovator's Dilemma", says that the game console industry will come to a point where games will often be technologically "good enough" for everyone. He argues that even if the Wii comes with just "good enough" graphics, it also does come coupled with an innovative (and arguably popular) controller, especially with all the excitement around the new style of gaming through the Wiimote.

Andy Grove, Intel's former CEO, cited the same book for its insights into the state of competition among tech-related companies. He believes that an "inflection point" will occur when devices become too complicated or too feature-rich. Nothing better is gained anymore than what is really needed. But he argues that such a point will be hard to determine and even harder to predict. If Nintendo correctly predicted that the industry has reached an inflection point, well they're going to have a field day while Sony and Microsoft move shop.

Our team feels that Nintendo's focus into innovation, rather than muscle, is a bold and much needed spur to the industry to provide us with more ways to interact with a game, rather than how good a game looks. Immersion is a key element to a good game, but it's a two-sided relationship: the player's interaction with the game and the game's visuals and audio drawing the player into its midst.

So the Wii got one part right...and the PS3 and 360 got the other part right. It's only a matter of time before a game is no longer just a game - it's an experience. And what an experience it's going to be...