Monthly Archives: March 2008

According to this, Atari’s new CEO is ex-Disney boss Jim Wilson. From that piece:

Atari, Inc. has announced the appointment of Jim Wilson as its CEO and president, effective immediately, assuming the responsibilities which have been overseen by the company’s restructuring officer since October 2007.

Wilson has more than 15 years of executive management experience with videogame and entertainment companies including The Walt Disney Company, Vivendi Universal Games, Universal Interactive Studios and Sony Wonder/Sony BMG.

Go Atari, etc.

Ubisoft announced Wii-exclusive Emergency Heroes today, a game set to allow “young rescuers can jump into 16 different variations of next-generation rescue vehicles as a police officer, firefighter or EMT and navigate through the sprawling streets of San Alto, keeping citizens safe along the way.”

We don’t know what an EMT is, but is sounds exciting. Emergency Heroes comes out in America in May. No word on a European date. Press release after the link.

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According to this, a Guinness Book of World Records game is to be released on Wii and DS.

The title has a scheduled release date of October 30 and is yet to receive an ERSB rating. No other details are known at this time.

By Mike Bowden

“Still Alive”, the song from the end of Portal, is going to be available for play on Rock Band tomorrow in the US. We still don’t know when the game’s coming out in Europe, and we’re getting a bit sick of pretending we care, to be honest. If you want to sing along to a screen, all you need to do is take drugs in a cinema. It’s cheaper, for one thing.

Following this afternoon’s confirmation that the PlayStation Store is to be overhauled in Europe in mid-April, SCEA’s confirmed the move for the States as well.

The new Store will dump the PS3 browser and provide a sleeker interface than the current model. It’ll also require firmware 2.30 to run it, so you can expect another software upgrade in the next few weeks.

Says so here. It also says in that piece that the update – announced today for a mid-April launch – will require everyone to update to firmware 2.30. SCEE hasn’t talked about the new software update yet, but you’re going to be getting it in the next couple of weeks, if that’s to be believed.

According to RPS, EVE Online creator Reynir Harðarson is to move to CCP’s studio in Atlanta to work full time on the upcoming World of Darkness MMO.

“Yes, I’m helping with the design of the World Of Darkness game, which is now in production,” he said. “I’ve moved my family out there, bought a house, and so on.”

While saying very little on the game – a contemporary vampire affair – Harðarson did say that it would stick to the same ideals of the company’s famed space-based MMO.

“The key, we still believe, is human interaction,” he said. “The World of Darkness game shares that vision. We wouldn’t really be in this business if it wasn’t for those principles… I want to say so much, but I really can’t at this stage. But it’s about being real in the way that EVE feels real. People should really feel it: they’re not just playing a game.”

Go read RockPaperShotgun. Everyone should.

Microsoft’s confirmed that Mr Driller Online will be available for download from Live Arcade from Wednesday onwards. The Namco puzzler update features four-way multiplay and will cost 800 MS Points.

Ubisoft has raised guidance for the current financial year from €875 million to €920 million for the full financial year, and announced that Rainbow Six Vegas 2 has sold 2 million units.

“As expected, 2008 is off to be a record year for the videogame market and our games have performed remarkably well in this context,” said Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot. “Assassin’s Creed and our Games For Everyone brands continued their strong performance and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 had a better than expected start. One year after the great success of the first title, the second iteration, which provides another unique multi-player experience in the much enjoyed Tom Clancy environment, is ranked among the top games on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in almost every country.”

Press release after the link.

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SCEE’s officially announced SOCOM: Confrontation, the PS3 update to PlayStation’s in-house squad shooter. Here’s what you’re going to get when it releases later this year:

• Intense online combat experience with up to 32 players delivered in High Definition
• Seven highly detailed maps
• New engine built for PS3 with advanced physics, lighting and ballistics including penetration modelling
• Choice of playing as one of five special forces units: United States Navy SEALs, Special Air Service (SAS, United Kingdom), Kommando Spezialkräfte (KSK, Germany), Unidad de Operaciones Especiales (UOE, Spain), 1er Régiment de Parachutistes d’Infanterie de Marine (1er RPIMa, France)
• Unrivalled Community Features with increased clan & ladder support
• Tournaments available at the regional, national and global levels
• Advanced player matching enable players to form teams with their friends and easily join an online game
• Integration with SOCOM.com: Stat tracking, clan management tools, My SOCOM pages and more

Press release after the link. As you can see, there’s no release date, but Gamespress says “November” and we’re not going to argue with that.

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The latest move in its game of videogames retail Risk, US firm Gamestop has acquired 49 shops in Norway:

Purchasing 100 percent of the outstanding share capital of local chain Free Record Shop, the stores will now be branded as GameStop outlets as the company increases its store count to 160 locations in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

“We are pleased to have worked with Hans Breukhoven and his entire management team at Free Record Shop to complete this acquisition,” offered R. Richard Fontaine, CEO of GameStop.

According to this, there’s a demo for Sports Interactive’s Football Manager 2008 on Live now. The taster allows you to play half a season in 14 countries. If you like football, you’ll probably like this. The game came out in Europe last Friday.

As if there was ever any doubt. The BBFC green-lit GTA IV for UK release today, giving the game an 18 certificate. The title releases for 360 and PS3 on April 29.

According to this, Infinity Ward reckons that 1.3 million people play Call of Duty 4 on Live every day.

“That’s just 360,” said producer Mark Rubin. :There’s even more on the other platforms [PS3 and PC], but we just don’t have the same numbering system. Overall, even without the other consoles, we are beating the competition. PS3 numbers are monstrously huge. No other game has come close, either online current, or total unique users in a day.”

Rubin said the level of play had been hitting figures at this level “”consistently for the past two-to-three months, Monday through Sunday. It’s crazy.”

CoD4 was confirmed as the biggest selling game of 2007 in January.

SCEE has officially announced a revamp for the PlayStation Store for mid-April in the PAL territories.

“The new design will deliver a hugely improved navigation system, much greater scope for categorisation and a dynamic new user interface,” said the company in a statement.

There will now be no content updates for the Store until it relaunches.

No mention was made of a US Store relaunch in the press release, which you can read after the link.

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Rockstar won’t be happy. You can see the first ever screens of the GTA IV HUD here (thanks, Blerk). They’re part of a Zoo article from Australia, photos taken of a journalist playing the game. Looks as though the only thing on there’s a map. Look, quick, before Rockstar’s legal machine grinds into motion.

Here. This is fucking epic, frankly. There are more words in this Dan Houser interview related to Grand Theft Auto than you could possibly ever need. A quick cut and paste into Word reckons this article’s over 9,000 words long.

Unbelievably, this is part one, with the second piece being published next week. Author Hilary Goldstein’s piece shits all over the previous record-holder, Edge’s 16-page GTA marathon, which in turn trumped Australian site Gameplayer’s ten-page playtest at 5,000 words.

Hilary and IGN: we salute you. You have more words on Grand Theft Auto than anyone else. If you can make part two more than 11,000 words, you will have written a third of a novel on a crime action series. No one, no one, is going to beat that. You win.

Speaking here, Sims Studio creative director Rod Humble reckons there’ll be enough in the Sims 3 to keep the “gamer” crowd happy.

“I think there is a lot more ‘gamer-ness’ in The Sims 3,” he said. “The team has added a lot more challenge and depth for gamers.

“I have become obsessed with book collecting with my sims, and you can do things like fishing and gardening: there’s a lot more of that goal-orientated gameplay. I also think that the flexibility of the new Sims character system is a massive deal.”

The game’s shipping next year. More through the link.

According to this, Sega Sammy is to close Sega Korea.

Sega has said the Korean dissolution will have no impact on the company’s operating results and the move is necessary to optimise its global business operations.

The move is the latest in what’s looking to be a very nasty financial situation for the publisher, which was forced to announce the loss of 400 staff and a reigning in of its arcade business in early February.

This is fantastic. As you can see here, an unnamed British newspaper is offering “hundreds of pounds” to people who can provide them with a good enough story of how gaming turned them into criminals.

“Did computer games make you turn to a life of crime?” asked the paper. Well, did they? Did your prostitute-murdering career begin with the launch of GTA III? You’re in luck. Get over there quick, before Anne Diamond applies for a story about games turning her to crimes against reality.