Entertainment

Sony Online Entertainment acquires Octopi, becomes SOE Tucson

Game industry news can be a bit depressing lately, with layoffs and shutdowns happening all over the world. Sony Online Entertainment's acquisition of Octopi is a refreshing change of pace. Octopi is known for their online collectible strategy game PoxNora. Under Sony Online Entertainment, they will operate as SOE Tucson.

While this news doesn't directly affect PS3 owners, SOE is one of the biggest supporters of PS3 -- the studios have already released a variety of PlayStation Network games, and are currently working on The Agency, FreeRealms and DC Universe Online. We doubt it'll be long until SOE Tucson works on a PS3 game of their own.

Electronic Arts has saying for some time now that they plan to lay off about 10 percent of their employees in order to cut costs in this current economic situation. Now our sister site Joystiq is reporting through their own unnamed sources that some of those cuts may have reached Warhammer Online developer Mythic Entertainment.

According to their story, layoffs were given out last Friday to 21 of the developer's customer service employees along with half of their QA staff and all of the developers playtesters. When asked for comment, an EA spokesperson said only that they plan to detail all of the publisher's layoffs in their upcoming quarterly financial report on February 3. Last week, the rumor mill hit with word that EA was closing down the Australian offices of developer Pandemic.

Update: Mythic's head man Mark Jacobs has posted up some comments on the Warhammer Alliance message boards. While he doesn't confirm that there have been some layoffs at Mythic, he doesn't deny them either, saying, "As part of EA, all studios are expected to do their fair share to meet the expectations of our CEO."

Fox Home Entertainment Execs Axed

I'm told there were some firings at Fox Home Entertainment. My studio sources confirm that Steve Feldstein, Dorrit Ragosine and Chris Reichert were all dismissed. There are lots of rumors as to the reason why, some very juicy, but all I can squeeze out of insiders is that there were hush-hush "policy issues". Others describe the execs as very competent and express shock that the trio lost their jobs. I've got to get on a plane heading to the East Coast again for family business tonight. So I won't be able to post more about this or other topics before Wednesday.

Love it or hate it, Hideo Kojima loves making his games feel like movies. So what are the movies he draws inspiration from? Tsutaya is currently showcasing Kojima's top 15 films, and here's what they look like:

• The Guns of Navarone
• The Great Escape
• Goldfinger
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Planet of the Apes (original work)
• The Deer Hunter
• Dawn of the Dead
• Full Metal Jacket
• Predator
• Die Hard
• Heat
• Black Hawk Down
• Children of Men
• Bourne Series
• 007 Casino Royale

This is rather manly list of films and sounds exactly like our Blu-ray collection. Seriously, Kojima -- how are you going to attract female gamers like this? Where's "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days"? "Sleepless in Seattle"? C'mon, Hideo! You gotta broaden your horizons!

New movies on DVD

Jigsaw might be dead, but his traps live on in the fifth Saw entry, Saw V. Also on DVD: Max Payne, Igor, The Express, City of Ember, Henry Poole Is Here, Repo! The Genetic Opera.