What. The. Fuck. Seriously. What the fuck. Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games, just casually announced that they’ve closed Impossible Studios. This is the team responsible for Infinity Blade Dungeons, and therefore the development of the game is now on hold. Again: What the fuck. It’s not like Infinity Blade Dungeons is one of the most anticipated mobile titles and that it was expected to be available already a long time ago.

So, to me there are several things happening here that are “interesting”. First of all, let’s look at Infinity Blade Dungeons. This game was presented on-stage by Apple, undoubtedly to appeal to the hardcore gaming crowd to get them pumped for the new Apple devices. It was a product demo, promising to show us what we would get if we buy that powerful new device. In the past, this would mean that either the game was already out, or that its release was imminent. So that’s why everyone got all excited to get their hands on Infinity Blade Dungeons. Because, well, that’s just how it works when something is teased at an Apple keynote. That’s almost a year ago now. By the end of 2012, Epic said the game would be released sometime “in 2013″. And, as was established at the beginning of this article, it’s now on indefinite hold.

So that was just stating the facts. Now let’s talk about Epic Games themselves. This is where I want to state very clearly upfront that this is pure speculation on my part and that I do not have any information backing up these thoughts I’m having of the “state of Epic Games”. Alright, now that hopefully no one is going to sue me let’s talk about said state of Epic. Currently, something seems to be going wrong at that company. Senior staff who have been working at Epic for ages were leaving (Cliff Bleszinski being arguably the most prominent one). Highly anticipated (and therefore most likely very profitable) games not being released. The rumors about the now infamous Samaritan tech demo actually having been developed as a game, which then faced major problems during development and, because of it, never turned into a real game. The closing of development studios.

Is it just me, or does that sound like things are not so great at Epic Games right now? Of course, there’s still the very strong licensing arm that Epic has. However, with the next console generation around the corner, it’s not clear whether or not the Unreal Engine will also be the major player in a world of Playstation 4s and Xbox720s like it was this generation.

So what do I want to say with this? Not much, really. Just that Epic Games seems to be in a bit of a struggle at the moment. By no means must this mean it’s a struggle for survival. But it’s most definitely a struggle of some sort. Let’s hope they sort it out. I do want me some Infinity Blade Dungeons, after all.

Infinity Blade Dungeons, Epic Games’ prequel to their incredibly successful Infinity Blade saga, was announced earlier this year. What makes it stand out form the previous games is the fact that it’s an isometric hack and slash game. And while this year saw the release of hack and slash heavy hitters like Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2, I’m still super excited for Infinity Blade Dungeons! There’s just something about the presentation and the atmosphere that make Epic’s Infinity Blade games a truly unique experience. The official release date still says “Coming Soon”, and I’m expecting this game to definitely hit before Christmas.

Star Command. Star friggin’ Command. I can’t wait for this game to be finally released on the App Store! The premise of Star Command is as simple as it is beautiful: You’re given the freedom to build your own spaceship, hire your own crew and then go explore the universe with them. Basically, it’ll make you feel like James Tiberius Kirk himself. And that’s just brilliant. Star Command was successfully funded on Kickstarter – but that was already one year ago. At the time, the developers were shooting for a Holiday 2011 release. The good news is that the devs have announced to publish a 10 minute gameplay video this monday. I’m excited to see what Star Command’s current state of development is!

Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition is a port of the classic PC RGP that pretty much redefined the genre back then. Baldur’s Gate is a real RPG heavy weight and I’m happy to see games of such complexity being brought to the iPad. It has been in development for quite some time now and is coming out on November 30th. If you are even remotely interested in a deep and rich RPG experience, get ready to be blown away.

With Imaginary Range, Square Enix has released an interactive manga on the App Store. At first I was a bit puzzled to find out Square’s mysterious new project is basically a manga, but if you think about it for a second, it’s actually a great match. After all, Square Enix is also behind the epic stories in the Final Fantasy series. And lately, Final Fantasy focused more and more on a cinematic story.

So, what is Imaginary Range? I’d say “interactive manga” describes it quite well. It’s basically a manga with story related mini games that you will have to complete to keep the story going. The mini games are quite fun and there’s a bunch of them to make sure it doesn’t feel too repetitive. You’ll have to guide missiles to hit weak spots on an enemy, clear levels with a laser or find special items in a picture. Imaginary Range starts in the middle of an action sequence and you’ll be left wondering what the heck is going there. The story is interesting and unfolds nicely.

On top of all of that, it’s free! If I had to put down a bet, I’d say Square released it for free to make people familiar with the concept and later on add In-App Purchases for new issues, or offer them as separate apps. All in all, this is a pretty cool app if you’re into mangas. And if not, you might want to give it a try anyway, even if it’s just to see how Square tries to evolve the medium.

Savegames. To be more precise: A function to backup and sync savegames. So simple, yet so important to finally turn the iOS platform into a ‘real’ gaming platform. Most games of course already allow you to save your progress or even do it automatically for you – but those savegames are only stored locally on that one iPhone or iPad you have played this game on and are forever lost if you ever delete the game from that device. No savegame in iTunes, no sync available. If you look at some games taking up to 1GB of space it becomes obvious that for gamers with 16GB or 8GB iDevices this will become a problem rather sooner than later (Let’s hope that’s not intentional).

One more important point: If I start a lengthy game like Final Fantasy III on my iPad, I want to be able to synchronize that savegame to my iPhone or iPod Touch so I can continue on the go. And the more serious developers take the iOS platform, the more often you will come across such games that are just too deep to be played on 2 devices with different savegames.

The introduction of Game Center has shown that Apple is taking gaming on iOS serious, so I really hope they also address this last shortcoming of the platform. And since rumors say Apple will present its new iOS 5 on a special event sometime in April, it seems we don’t have to wait long until we find out. Fingers crossed.