Sega won't be publishing any more video games featuring characters from the Marvel Comics stable any time soon, if ever again. Marvel's vice president of games production, TQ Jefferson, while light on specifics, confirmed the news in a recent interview.

"There are no current plans for additional Marvel games to be published by Sega," he said.

Read more: Superhero woes »

Yesterday, it was announced (unofficially) that Jon Shafer, the lead designer of Civilization V who recently left Firaxis, had been hired by Stardock to help with the continuing development of Elemental: War of Magic and eventually lead his own team for another game down the line.

Shacknews caught up with Jon for a quick interview, which is presented below. Enjoy! Read more »

Stardock, the developer of Elemental: War of Magic and operator of the Impulse digital download storefront, has hired Jon Shafer who recently left Firaxis Games where he had served as lead designer on Civilization V (via BigDownload).

Shafer will assist with the continuing development of Elemental: War of Magic, which is currently being overseen by Derek "Kael" Paxton who was hired back in October for his experience with creating the Civilization IV mod "Fall from Heaven". Stardock CEO Brad Wardell stepped down from the lead developer position to serve as the game's executive producer and continues to work on the game's AI. Read more »

Things are on the up for Elemental: War of Magic as developer Stardock has finally launched its much-anticipated mega-patch 1.1, bringing dozens of fixes and changes to the fantasy turn-based strategy game.

"The 1.1 patch for Elemental: War of Magic is an opportunity to enhance and refine the game," said lead producer Derek Paxton in a press release. "In a limited timeframe, the team was able to implement major features. As a result, the game has been rebalanced to remain fun and challenging throughout. It impacts nearly every aspect of gameplay, the interface and most significantly the role of Magic." Read more »

When it first launched, Elemental: War of Magic stumbled in the wake of gameplay and balance issues. Today, things are looking up for the game as publisher/developer Stardock told Big Download that sales were up 30 percent in October.

Stardock wouldn't detail the increase but noted that sales on its digital platform Impulse, as well as retail order shipments, saw spikes during the month. Of course, whether this has more to do with the developer fixing some of the game's issues or the two free expansion packs that were offered for buyers before Halloween is unclear. Read more »

Still seeking to make amends for Elemental: War of Magic's "disastrous launch," developer Stardock has announced that everyone who buys the PC fantasy strategy title before October 31 will receive its first two expansion packs for free.

Earlier this month, Stardock revealed that work on the first expansion pack would begin after it launches Elemental patch 1.1--an update that will be available in beta form to all players in "early November." Back then, Stardock had only revealed plans for the first expansion to be released free. The expansion will also be when veteran modder Derek 'Kael' Paxton will take over from the former lead designer, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell. Read more »

Stardock has hired Derek "Kael" Paxton, creator of the Civilization IV mod 'Fall from Heaven', to "oversee Stardock's ongoing development and expansions of the recently released fantasy strategy game, Elemental: War of Magic."

The launch of Elemental was, by some accounts, "disastrous" and bringing in some external talent is a good move. Brad Wardell, Stardock's CEO, "will serve as the executive producer and lead AI developer on Elemental," and had previously served as the lead designer on the game. Read more »

The patch that was to enable multiplayer along with other gameplay fixes for Stardock's Elemental: War of Magic has been delayed until next week. It had been scheduled to release today, but wasn't ready.

In a post titled, "Making use of a lesson learned," no doubt referring to the game's shaky launch, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell explains the slight delay: Read more »

Though the studio was hit with layoffs last week, development continues for Elemental: War of Magic over at Stardock. This week, the company expects to release version 1.08, which will enable multiplayer in addition to a "weapons balance pass, bug fixes, AI updates" and more.

Additionally, CEO and lead designer Brad Wardell has outlined the plan for future patches and content in a "drama cleansing thread" over on the Elemental forums. Read more »

[Update 10:30pm] Stardock CEO Brad Wardell has confirmed the layoffs in a forum post, attributing the cuts to Elemental's updated revenue projections following its launch.

"Elemental's revenue was anticipated to provide the revenue both for our main games team's next project as well as a second team," writes Wardell. "Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen so we've had to start laying people off." Read more »

Field Reports provide our first-hand experience with the latest games, but should not be considered a review.

It is my personal opinion that Stardock's latest game, Elemental: War of Magic, is not ready to be reviewed. I'm not talking about bugs, crashes, or compatibility issues—those should have all been ironed out at the time of this post—but rather, game design and balance. Read more »

Although its only been available for a day, Stardock has added a slew of new content and fixes to its fantasy turn-based strategy title, Elemental: War of Magic.

Users who purchased the game at retail now can download the "Day 0" patch via developer/publisher Stardock's Impulse digital delivery client. The patch adds new spells, a "Faction Editor" and additional mod tools. The release also fixes a bevy of issues, including tweaks to Elemental's AI and fixes for multiple crash bugs. Full patch notes are available on the official Elemental forum. Read more »

Developer and publisher Stardock has released a launch trailer and the introduction cinematic for its upcoming game, Elemental: War of Magic, which releases on August 24 at retail and via Impulse.

A limited edition of the game will also be available, which comes with a world guide exploring some of the lore of the game's world. Excerpts from this world guide can be found here and here. Read more »

Included with the limited edition of Stardock's Elemental: War of Magic is a lore book called the Hiergamenon World Guide.

Shacknews has teamed up with Stardock to present some excerpts from that book and it continues now with a look at the game's "Kingdoms of the West", seen below.

Read more »

Included with the limited edition of Stardock's Elemental: War of Magic is a lore book called the Hiergamenon World Guide.

Shacknews has teamed up with Stardock to present some excerpts from that book over the next few days, starting with a look at the game's "Sovereign's of the East", seen below.

Read more »