Soundbytes is celebrating its first birthday with its fifth gig in Melbourne tonight. The venue is the Queensberry Hotel (cnr of Swanston and Queensberry) and just $10 will get you inside for six sets of chiptunes, ie. music that sounds very much like old video game music.

Soundbytes 5 [DPad, thanks Drew!]

Former Krome employees have apparently contacted Australian Gamer to let them know about the layoffs. Further redundancies have apparently also taken place at Krome’s Melbourne office as well.

Krome is Australia’s largest game development studio and creator of the Ty the Tasmanian Tiger franchise. Recent titles include Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes (pictured), Scene It? Box Office Smash, the Wii and PS2 versions of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and the PS2 and PSP versions Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Krome is currently working on Blade Kitten, an action game that has yet to find a publisher.

It’s been a tough year for Aussie game development. First, Pandemic Brisbane was shut down after the failure of its Batman project then Melbourne’s Transmission Games suffered severe cuts ahead of the studio’s eventual closure last month. Now it’s Krome’s turn. We hope everyone affected by the layoffs lands on their feet as quickly as possible.

Friday the 13th hits Krome Studios [Australian Gamer]

The highlights will be at Liverpool Westfield in Sydney and Knox City Shopping Centre in Melbourne, the two stores designated to host what EB predict will be the biggest gaming launch ever in Australia.

“EB Games are extremely excited to be the premier launch destination of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. We look forward to being an integral part of this historic event as this will be the biggest gaming launch in Australian history,” says Shane Stockwell, EB Games merchandising director.

“We are expecting tens of thousands of people to come out at midnight to get this game, it will definitely be a sight to see and I would encourage everyone to come along and be part of these very special events right across Australia.”

Those heading down to the two official midnight launches will be in the running to win a bunch of prizes, too, including:

* Dress in camo and get your head shaved for your chance to win a Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition Xbox 360 console
* Free cans of V energy drink
* Energizer Torches
* Plus the chance to get a free upgrade from Standard Edition to Hardened Edition

Oh, and if you’re going, don’t forget to take some pics and send them to us.

Transmission recently laid off a third of its staff after failing to secure several lucrative publishing deals. Today, the entire studio has shut its doors with the remaining staff made redundant.

We’ve heard that the studio went into liquidation this morning and an administrator has been appointed. However, no official statement has been forthcoming.

Any studios in Melbourne looking to hire, there’s now a bunch of talented developers looking for a new gig.

We mentioned the news that Film Victoria was increasing funding to local developers of downloadable games. But the speakers at the Summit spoke about a range of issues affecting not just developers, but gamers too.

The Summit’s organisers have just made available via their website five videos, including talks from international guests such as David Edery, former manager of Xbox Live Arcade, and Simon Carless, head of the Independent Games Festival. Joining them were local developers including Krome’s Rob Walsh, Halfbrick’s Shainiel Deo and Firemint’s Rob Murray.

Watch them below.

Digital Distribution Summit – Sandra Sdraulig Opening & David Edery Keynote from Digital Distribution Summit on Vimeo.

Digital Distribution Summit – Simon Carless from Digital Distribution Summit on Vimeo.

Digital Distributon Summit – Rob Murray from Digital Distribution Summit on Vimeo.

Digital Distribution Summit – Shainiel Deo from Digital Distribution Summit on Vimeo.

Digital Distribution Summit – Future of Digital Distribution Panel from Digital Distribution Summit on Vimeo.

The lay offs come shortly after Transmission shipped Ashes Cricket 2009 for Codemasters and Heroes Over Europe for Ubisoft. We were told that the redundancies occurred on Wednesday, September 30, and comprised of 30 full-time staff – primarily coders, as well as all remaining QA staff, which accounted for a third of the total studio.

It seems Transmission were forced to cut costs after failing to secure several publishing deals. Transmisison had been hoping to sign a deal to work on a game based on a major upcoming movie, but that deal apparently fell through this week.

According to an internal email sent by Transmission CEO Mike Fegan, the studio was also pitching another project in a well-known franchise to the same international publisher.

“We finally heard back from XXXX this morning and the news is mixed as [licensed movie game] is currently on hold due to a legal IP problem with the film and no indication on when this issue will be fixed. As part of our fall back plan we have now submitted a pre-prepared pitch for [a sequel to an existing IP] and they also want us to pitch on another project but the reality is we will not have another project in place with them for at least 60-90 days.”

Also contributing to the financial woes is a project called Rotorhead, an arcade style helicopter game, for which Transmission has been unable to find a publisher.

In better news, other internal emails obtained by Kotaku indicate that they will be working on a new Cricket game for Codemasters, codenamed Cricket 2010 and due for release next year. And a previously announced Jane’s F-22 flight sim to be published by Evolved Games is still in production.

Note: This post has been altered since its original publication.

Actually, he’s not just the voice of Mario. He also provides the voice of Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Mario and Baby Luigi. He’s one talented voice actor.

Nintendo is bringing Charles out to Australia and you’ll be able to meet him at the following locations:

Wednesday, September 9 @ EB Games, Swanston St, Melbourne
Thursday, September 10 @ Myer, George St, Sydney
Saturday, September 12 @ Harvey Norman, Parramatta Rd, Auburn

Sorry to readers in non-NSW/VIC states.

Nintendo will also be handing out Mario gift bags to the first 50 people in line at each store, while other prizes are on offer for Nintendo-themed cosplayers. Plus, there’s a comp over on the Nintendo Australia website for the chance to win an “exclusive meet and greet” prior to Charles’ in-store appearances.

Woo-hoo!

[Pic]

The event, which takes place at the State Library of Victoria, incudes sessions on everything from iPhone development to DS homebrew, art, education, criticism, chiptunes and even workshops. Petri Purho, designer of Crayon Physics, will be giving the international keynote on Friday afternoon.

Freeplay organiser Paul Callaghan told Screen Play this morning that:

“Freeplay is all about looking at the creative side of not just games, but the broader digital culture and media. It’s a showcase and exploration of art and creativity. And it’s about getting people together. Our audience is made up of indies, professional developers, students, educators, artists, and gamers, and we’re one of the few events where they’re in the same space, and where we encourage them to interact with each other.”

Tickets are just $20 and are still available. Check out the rest of Jason Hill’s chat with Paul Callaghan here.

Freeplay [official site]

Established in 1996, the AIE is arguably Australia’s leading educational institution in the fields of game development and digital arts and animation. The AIE open day is held at its Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra campuses between 10am and 4pm Sunday, August 16.

Speaking at the Melbourne campus will be Adam Briggs, art director from Big Ant Studios where he’s currently hard at work on an AFL game for PS3 and 360.

“It’s really important that people wanting a career in games develop their skills through practice and training which is kept current with video game industry needs” said Mr Briggs, who has also worked in the Melbourne studios Transmission Games and Firemint. “While being a lover of games is certainly beneficial, solid artistic and programming knowledge is a requirement to getting employment in the industry and crucial to development of products that are competitive in the current world market.”

Other studios available on the day to chat with include Iron Monkey Studios and Tantalus Media.

AIE National Open Day [AIE]

Expo organisers have just announced the dates for this year’s event. It’ll be held at Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building from October 30 to November 1.

Details are scarce right now, with a full list of exhibitors to be revealed soon. But you can expect to see many of this year’s biggest games on display and playable on the show floor. Adult tickets are $18 at the door or you can pick up a three-day pass for $33.

Former Kotaku AU editor Logan travelled down for the 2007 show. His adventures should give you some idea of what to expect. More info on this year’s show at the eGames website.