Gaming News Round-Up: January 18th, 2005

Today's news includes information on Namco's entry into mobile gaming in the U.S., a little interplanetary explorer sim fun from Vision Videogames, and a charitable effort for tsunami victims by BioWare. - M7 Networks, a mobile game publisher, has signed Namco to Sprint's Game Lobby service for 3G phones. Namco is currently contributing four initial offerings to the Game Lobby: Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, and Stack'um, to be followed later by Dig Dug and Mr. Driller. These games mark Namco's first entries into the U.S. mobile market. "We are pleased to welcome Namco America to The Game Lobby publisher community," said William Erickson of M7 Networks. "We believe their games, such as Pac-Man and Galaga, will strongly influence the expansion of the Sprint game community." - Vision Videogames has found a fitting match for its SpaceStationSIM engine: the Maryland-based developer has been contracted by Raytheon to provide assets, animation, and programming for a "Virtual Vehicle." The virtual machine will provide a way for Raytheon to test concepts for a real planetary surface explorer, in support of NASA's initiative to travel to the moon and to Mars. SpaceStationSIM was developed in conjunction with NASA through the Space Act Agreement, and will be available this spring alongside NASA's first space shuttle flight to the International Space Station in two years. - BioWare Corp., developer of Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and the upcoming Jade Empire, has announced its intention to provide financial support to the Southeast Asia tsunami relief effort. In a selfless move, every charity dollar raised by the staff will be matched by the company in donations to various relief organizations; over $23,000 CDN has been raised so far. "The tragedy in South-East Asia has deeply touched everyone at BioWare," said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Joint CEO of BioWare along with Dr. Greg Zeschuk, "and our amazing staff has been extraordinarily generous in this time of need."