Round Up: PS3 Voodoo, $7m _Perplex_ity, Bethesda Does FPS

Today's round-up includes news of Sony bringing the PS3 to New Orleans for the Voodoo Music Experience, a big investment for Perplex City creators Mind Candy, and a new tactical FPS coming from publishers Bethesda and Zombie Studios, as well as the latest Game Career Guide updates, Serious Games Source posts, GameSetWatch posts and Gamasutra job postings. - Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced that it will be joining New Orleans' eighth annual Voodoo Music Experience as a sponsor and exhibitor. The two day festival will bring musical acts Red Hot Chili Peppers, Duran Duran, Wu-Tang Clan, and The Flaming Lips to the city's City Park on October 28th and 29th. Attendees will also find the first stop of the new "PlayStation Experience" truck, complete with not only upcoming PSP and PS2 titles, but one of the first major public hands-on displays of the PS3. "The Voodoo Music Experience is the perfect match for our audience, and we're thrilled to once again return to New Orleans," said SCEA senior marketing director Sharon Shapiro. "This year's show features the debut of our new 'PlayStation Experience' truck featuring PS3. Not only will this event be the first stop on its national tour, but it also marks the first chance for many consumers to see, touch, play, and enjoy PS3 before it launches on November 17th." - Officials from Mind Candy, the UK based company behind the alternate reality game Perplex City, have announced a $7 million dollar investment from Accel Partners and existing investors Index Ventures and NewMedia Spark, preceding a major 2007 expansion of the ARG, including a second new puzzle brand aimed at a younger audience. 2007 will also see a wide-range of new Perplex City products including books, video games and mobile content. Bruce Golden, general partner at Accel Partners said, “We believe that Mind Candy is a pioneer in developing new forms of entertainment that combine some of the best attributes of the internet with the strengths of traditional board games, puzzles, and treasure hunts. Mind Candy’s initial success at establishing a passionate community of participants in Perplex City, combined with their ambitious plans to build a global brand for consumers interested in this new form of entertainment represents a very exciting investment opportunity for us." - Ahead of its online release, news from the UK's Xbox 360: The Official Xbox Magazine has come out confirming that Elder Scrolls developer and publisher Bethesda is teaming with Zombie Studios to create Rogue Warrior, an Unreal Engine 3 powered tactical first person shooter along the lines of Ghost Recon. Amongst the innovations being touted for the game is a unique map construction kit that allows players to create new maps from existing level kits before each round of play to keep the experience unpredictable for each team. Set for release sometime next year, the developers also promise four-player co-op over Xbox Live, with maps supporting up to 24 players online. - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister alt.gaming weblog GameSetWatch include Postal creator Vince Desi's demented cameo as 'Krotchy' (!) in the forthcoming Postal bovie, an anti-Second Life column from Nashua, NH's leading newspaper, and the latest 'BUZZ' Berkeley column, on Nintendo's 'fatal success'. - News on Gamasutra's game education sister site Game Career Guide includes a free game design seminar hosted by Guildhall at SMU, and on Serious Games Source, news of the forthcoming X|Media|Lab 'Games For Learning' conference. - Also updated today: the latest Gamasutra job postings, including openings from EA, Harmonix, Irrational, Sierra Online, Sony Online Entertainment, THQ, TimeGate, and Vogster.