Round-Up: Geometry Wars Sales, EA Reveal 06, Tamagotchi 1M

Today's round-up includes news on impressive download numbers for Geometry Wars Evolved, EA's new Canadian animation competition, and the latest Tamagotchi title's impressive Japanese performance, as well as the latest GameSetWatch weblog posts and Gamasutra job postings. - According to an MTV News interview with Microsoft executives, flagship Xbox Live Arcade title Geometry Wars Evolved has garnered 200,000 trial downloads since the system's launch, and 45,000 paid downloads of the full product. The game, a psychedelic space shooter, was originally created as a bonus minigame in Project Gotham Racing 2, and was expanded by its creator Stephen Cakebread for Microsoft's digital delivery service. The Live Arcade system has been a success with developers, according to group manager Greg Canessa: "We're somewhat overwhelmed with submissions right now." - Electronic Arts is sponsoring EA Reveal 06, an animation competition open to Canadian students. Canadian citizens or permanent residents can enter the Canadian 3D Animation Showdown by submitting a 3D digitally animated short up to 4 minutes long, a one-page artist biography, a 250-word essay about the process of creating the short, three digital stills from the artist's portfolio, proof of student registration, and contact information. 25 finalists will receive a trip to EA's Vancouver studios, where the judges will decide on a Grand Prize of $20,000, with a matching $20,000 going toward the winner's school. Additional prizes will be awarded to three first place, three second place, and three third place winners. Full registration details are available at the competition website. - Bandai has announced that shipments of Tamagotchi no Puchi Puchi Omisetchi have exceeded 1 million since the game's September 15th release. The Nintendo DS game, developed by quirky studio Nana-On-Sha, is now the best-selling third-party game for the DS, driven by the Tamagotchi name and the wide-ranging DS audience's eagerness for virtual pet sims. Bandai will release the game in the U.S. as Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop on February 14th. - Over at Gamasutra's recently launched sister game weblog GameSetWatch, new posts include a feature on religious gaming clans, information on a new Asian NES clone, and pictures of some neat indie game merchandise, among others. - Also updated today: the latest Gamasutra job postings, including positions from Collision Studios, D2 Creative/Appliedinfo Partners, Inc, Digital Subterfuge, Factor 5, Forterra Systems, IGN Entertainment, Nokia, and The Bohle Company.