Round Up: Encore/Hasbro, Konami/TokyoPop, Spider-Man

Today's round-up includes news of a new deal to bring popular Hasbro board games to the PC, Konami bringing East Coast Rising to mobile phones, and Activision showing off a new Spider-Man game at the International Comic-Con Convention in San Diego, as well as the latest GameSetWatch posts, product news, Serious Games Source news, and Gamasutra job postings. - Navarre Corporation subsidiary Encore Software announced that it has signed a multi- year agreement with the Hasbro Properties Group, the intellectual property development arm of Hasbro, to publish new PC software versions of some of the toy and board game manufacturer's popular board games in North America. As part of a multi-platform launch in North America, Monopoly and Scrabble will be the first of the new releases. Monopoly Here & Now will feature an all-new game board equipped with modern day locations, and will be available for purchase at major retailers this holiday season. In addition, Yahtzee, Clue and The Game of Life will be available in 2007. - Konami announced that the company has entered into an agreement with U.S. manga company Tokyopop to launch a series of mobile games starting with the popular pirate-based manga, East Coast Rising. "Transforming a hot manga property like East Coast Rising into a mobile game demonstrates the kind of synergy that's now possible between traditional forms of entertainment and mobile content," commented Joe Morris, vice president, mobile content, Konami Digital Entertainment. "As the leaders of the global manga revolution, Tokyopop reaches a teen audience that wants cool stuff to play on their cell phones." The game is expected to be available in early fall. - Activision announced today that it will be showing off a trio of titles at the International Comic-Con Convention in San Diego from July 19 through July 23. Among these is a previously unannounced portable title leveraging off of the Spider-Man license, and named Spider-Man: Battle for New York. According to the company, the game will allow gamers to take on the role of either Spider-Man or the Green Goblin, in an original storyline created for the game. Other Activision titles expecting to make an appearance at the event include Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Spider-Man 3: The Game. - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister weblog GameSetWatch include a book that compiles the artwork of Oliver Frey, some of which was done for British video game magazines in the 80s, a look at the recently announced Portal from Valve, and an unreleased SNES title from Toshio Iwai called Sound Fantasy. - Also updated today: Serious Games Source news, including an update to serious games catalog site Social Impact Games, plus Gamasutra product news including Technicolor managing UE3 Japanese localization and OpenGL ARB merging with the Khronos Group, and the latest Gamasutra job postings, featuring openings from Ageia Technologies, Day 1 Studios, High Moon Studios, LucasArts, Pandemic, THQ KAOS, and Volition.