Gaming News Round-Up: December 6th, 2004

Today's round-up includes Ion Storm's Harvey Smith disapparating to Midway Austin, Ubisoft signing on for Exent's Games On Demand, and free games in exchange for tragically deleted saves from Sony. - Harvey Smith, formerly of Ion Storm Austin, has joined Midway Games as Creative Director for Midway Studios Austin, formerly Inevitable Studios. His input will be used at all levels in development of the Austin studio's games, and he'll report to Denise Fulton, head of Midway Studios Austin, and also an Ion Storm alumnus. Smith has worked on a number of notable games in the past, including System Shock, Thief 3, Ultima VIII, as well Deus Ex: Invisible War, for which he was the project director, and is the latest in a number of prominent Midway hires that have included John Romero and Tom Hall joining Midway San Diego. - Ubisoft and Exent Technologies have partnered to allow Exent's Games On Demand service to offer Ubisoft titles. Players will be able to download more than three dozen PC games from the Ubisoft catalog, including games in the Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Myst, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, and Prince of Persia series. The games will be protected against digital piracy via EXEtender security measures. "We are looking forward to capitalizing on the leading edge technology of this fast-growing online industry," said Jay Cohen, Vice President of Publishing for Ubisoft. Israeli-based Exent already licenses PC games from a number of prominent publishers, including Atari, and is believed to be in negotiations with a number of others, as digital distribution becomes increasingly popular. - As previously reported, customers who received a copy of Sony's PlayStation 2 subscription 2004 Holiday Demo Disc were in for a nasty surprise if they played the Viewtiful Joe 2 demo, in the form of an entirely deleted PS2 memory card. By way of apology for missing this major flaw in the demo disc, Sony has presented those who actually had their memory card wiped with their choice of a free PS2 game from a list including Wild Arms 3, Parappa the Rapper 2, Gran Turismo 3, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, NCAA 2004, MLB 2004, Athens 2004, ATV Offroad Fury 3, and Hot Shots Golf 4. Those wanting their free game, providing your memory card was really wiped, can call 800-345-7669 and give their PlayStation 2 serial number, name, and address to receive one.