Round-Up: THQ Crosses Over, HP & HD-DVD, PhysX In Loki

Today's round-up includes news on THQ's cross-game save scheme, HP's support of the HD-DVD format, and Ageia's PhysX engine use in Cyanide's forthcoming PC RPG, as well as the latest GameSetWatch entries and Gamasutra job postings. - THQ has announced that its current wave of PlayStation 2 titles based on Nickeleodeon cartoon licenses will share save game data between them to unlock new features not accessible with just one game. The concept has been present in games for some time, usually for titles within the same series (such as the Suikoden games), but also occasionally for cross-franchise usage, as with the Super Smash Bros. Melee trophies unlockable with the relevant save data. The THQ games participating in the "Cross Save" feature are Tak: The Great Juju Challenge, SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants!, Nicktoons Unite!, and Barnyard. - Hewlett-Packard, a manufacturer of personal computers and peripherals, has announced its intentions to support the HD-DVD format as well as the Blu-ray format, as used in the PlayStation 3, which it had previously committed to. Part of the reason for the dual alliance is the Blu-ray Disc Association's refusal to adopt iHD, an interactivity standard present in the HD-DVD format. "By joining the HD-DVD Promotions Group and continuing work with the Blu-ray Disc Association, HP will be in a better position to assess true development costs and, ultimately, provide the best and most affordable solution for consumers," said HP personal storage business manager Maureen Weber. - Ageia Technologies, the developers of the PhysX hardware-based physics processor, has announced that Cyanide's upcoming RPG Loki will support the PhysX accelerator. "With the Ageia PhysX engine, our developers have far fewer constraints to take into consideration when creating Loki," said Fabrice Granger, project manager on Loki. "This not only gives them a wider range for expressing their imagination, but lets them achieve this with less development time than traditional approaches." - Over at Gamasutra's newly launched sister game weblog GameSetWatch, new posts include an interview with an Unreal-using artist, initial discussions on 'game of the year' picks, news on Nokia's mobile birdspotting software, and infon on an MIT-related Mario hack, among others. - Also updated today: the latest Gamasutra job postings, including positions from Ageia Technologies, Blue Fang Games, Climax Studios, Geonova AG, Jagex, and MVP Online.