How to win? You might be randomly chosen if you:

• Follow us on Twitter and retweet this post

• Become a Facebook fan and share with your friends

• Must live in Montreal

We will announce the winner by the end of the week. Good luck!

Update: Congratulations to @airdom (on Twitter) on winning a copy of Army of Two: The 40th Day! Thanks to everyone for the retweets!

French publisher Ubisoft has partnered with the Toys for Tots charity to release Giving Rabbids, a Facebook application enabling users to create and send Rabbids-themed digital greeting cards, as well as donate to Toys for Tots.

With the free app, users send an e-card to their Facebook friends with artwork from Ubisoft’s humorous Rabbids series (a spin-off from the company’s Rayman series), including Rayman Raving Rabbids, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party, and Rabbids Go Home, the last of which just released for Wii and Nintendo DS last November.

After choosing what Rabbids artwork to include with their cards, users are presented with the option to donate to Toys for Tots. Their full donation will go towards the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, which plans to use contributions to help provide disadvantaged children with new toys and books during the holiday season. Users also receive a 20 percent off coupon for Ubisoft’s online shop.

[…]

Strategy First, an international digital publisher and developer of interactive entertainment software, and Nvinium Games announced a strategic relationship whereby Nvinium will develop and market new versions of Strategy First’s best selling franchises Space Empires and Jagged Alliance for social network platforms. The initial deployment of these games will be as Facebook applications.

The original Space Empires released in 1993, has become one of the top 4X strategy games and has spawned four sequels. The award winning series most recent iteration, Space Empires V, with completely updated UI takes the player into a real-time rendered 3D universe. Space battles play out with incredible detail and realistic effects in a huge living and breathing galaxy. The series has received countless recognition for its creativity, originality, and mod-friendly environment. This series has maintained a very strong fan base of supporters and young developers who anxiously await each new game.

The original Jagged Alliance game was released in 1994 and has spawned five sequels. The franchise title, Jagged Alliance, describes the cutthroat relationships between members of a lethal mercenary team whose only true allegiance is to the highest bidder. Each a specialist in his or her own discipline, these operatives know that in order to survive their missions they must rely on but never dare trust each other. The team is assembled from the best of the best by the Alliance of International Mercenaries, an apolitical private organization with its own covert agenda. Jagged Alliance has a cult following with 1.5 million units sold since inception.

“We are delighted to team up with Nvinium to bring our flagship franchises into the new and exciting world of social network games. There has been a dramatic shift in the industry toward the online free to play micro transaction model and we believe that with this alliance we will be at the forefront of this new movement. Nvinium’s success in the space makes them an ideal partner to bring our award winning games to a much broader international audience,” said Emanuel Wall, President of Strategy First.

Matt Abrams, Chief Executive Officer of Nvinium, said “We are extremely excited to work with Strategy First on this venture. Space Empires and Jagged Alliance are well respected franchises and we look forward to introducing them to the social gaming community in the future.”

About Strategy First, Inc.

Strategy First Inc. is a leading worldwide digital publisher of entertainment software. Founded in 1990, the company is well known for its proprietary groundbreaking titles, including the award-winning Disciples, Jagged Alliance and Space Empires series of games. The company provides a unique alternative for independent developers seeking to market their games to a worldwide audience on digital platforms. For more information, go to www.strategyfirst.com.

About Nvinium Games, Inc.:

Founded in 2008, Nvinium Games is a social media developer and digital distribution company servicing the on-line gaming community. It recently launched UW-Covert Ops (http://apps.facebook.com/uw-covertops/), a military themed game for Facebook, which is an extension of its popular text based MMORPG UnforgivenWar. The Nvinium network includes games and sites such as MMOFury.com, Unforgivenwar.com, MafiaChaos.com, Contractedassassin.com and Stumpygames.com. For more information, go to www.nvinium.com.

• New Montreal game company map, and updated listing
• We now have a Facebook fan page.
• A stock ticker in the left sidebar with few Montreal game companies

More cool stuff is on the way!

Let us know if you have any suggestions or questions.

The GameCafé concept is a discussion format with an emphasis on intimate interactions in a casual setting. For our next GameCafé we will focus on the intersection of games and social media. Social media isn’t just limited to Facebook and iPhone. It’s actually a lot broader: Xbox Live, Home, achievement systems, sharing videos the Spore way, creating game modules and rating them, promoting your game via Twitter and recruiting via LinkedIn, etc… All of that is part of using social media and networks within the games world.

When: Thursday, October 15th, 6:00pm dinner / 7:30pm discussion
What: IGDA Montreal Chapter "GameCafé"
Where: Hurley’s Irish Pub (upstairs room), 1225 Crescent Street
Why: Lively discussion with your peers
Who: All IGDA members
Entry: free for members, must RSVP