Monthly Archives: June 2008

On Tiscali Games. It’s taken from a French mag, apparently, but it looks as though it’s been shot off a screen. It’s football. No doubting that.

With Electronic Arts in his rearview mirror, what’s Neil Young up to now?

“I am going to create a next-gen mobile games publisher, specifically and initially focused on the iPhone,” he said.

Titled ng:moco (Next-Gen Mobile Company), the new publisher hopes to take advantage of the iPhone’s unique delivery system – circumventing brick-and-mortar shops altogether.

We just wonder if any refrigerator magnets were hurt in the making of that name.

By Nathan Grayson

The Square Enix Members Blog has published the North American box art for the forthcoming XBox 360 exclusive JRPG, Infinite Undiscovery.

The game is released on September 2. Image after the break.

By Mike Bowden

More »

On IGN. This is the first story published on the site with “pre-IGN” in front of it, so welcome to the calm before the storm.

According to this GI report, ESA’s announced that Minnesota paid $65,000 in legal fees incurred as a result of the association’s successful challenge to the state’s unconstitutional videogame law.

“Minnesota’s citizens should be outraged at paying the bill for this flawed plan,” said ESA CEO Michael Gallagher.

“Minnesota’s public officials ignored legal precedent and instead pursued a political agenda that ultimately cost taxpayers money. Courts across the United States have ruled consistently that videogames are entitled to the same First Amendment protections as other forms of art, such as music and literature.”

More through the link.

The UK has become a promised land for gaming – a flagship for a Europe now easily comparable to America and Japan as a market.

Even so, in an interview with The Times, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick ruled out further expansion in the up-and-coming sector of the industry.

“It is ridiculously expensive to live in the UK, especially in London,” he said. “What dictates our expansion plans would be whether we can compensate our employees fairly and whether they can achieve the quality of life that they want.”

Activision currently employs the services of 1,000 workers in the UK, but it looks like everyone else is out of luck.

By Nathan Grayson

According to this Evil Avatar thread, the original Soul Calibur is to be released on XBLA this week.

And it hasn’t got online play. But it’s only 800 MS Points, so you should buy it. It’s a classic.

DFC Intelligence has forecast worldwide games revenues to reach $57 billion in 2009, with no signs of slowing due to slumping economies and expensive hardware.

“Consumer spending on software is at record levels and the game business seems to actually benefit from a recession because games are a relatively cheap form of home entertainment,” said DFC analyst David Cole.

More on GI.

Microsoft has teamed up with Dominos to offer 374 Americans a chances at winning a limited edition Batman-themed 360 Dark Knight console.

So if you live across The Pond and fancy stuffing your face on pizza in order to win, then you can see all the details here.

No news if any similar offers will be available in Europe.

The Dark Knight will hit cinemas on July 18 in the US and Europe a week later.

By Mike Bowden

Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots has taken pole in the Spanish and German software charts for week ending June 22, GI reports.

According to figures from Media-Control GfK International, Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core is straight in at number three in both territories.

The full chart listings for both countries are through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Gamespot UK writes that The Who’s 1971 album ‘Who’s Next’ will not be available as DLC for Rock Band after all, due to Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos telling the AP that “we were unable to locate all the masters.”

And that’s it.

By Mike Bowden

Shacknews reports that the hacker MaddoxX, who last year hacked into third-party Valve servers, was finally caught by Dutch police in Maastricht last Tuesday.

“According to the Dutch Ministry of the Interior, the 20 year-old hacker had managed to ‘burn 13 million euros playing poker online and shopping for notebooks, flat screens and MP3 players’ before being caught,” says the piece.

MaddoxX hacked Valve in April last year publicly revealing an “archived file that included unverified credit card numbers, transaction amounts, Valve’s supposed bank balance, and data that reportedly allowed the creation of counterfeit cyber cafe certificates.”

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

DigitalHome writes that Microsoft recently commissioned a poll exploring Canadians’ gaming habits asking whether they gamed “in public; at work; in the bathroom; in the bedroom, or in the nude.”

The results reveal that 17 percent of men – that’s roughly one in five, people – played computer games totally starkers whilst unfortunately only 9 percent of women followed suit, or not as the case may be.

All the other results through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Soleil Securities Group analyst Daniel Ernst boosted his rating on Electronic Arts to “Buy” from “Hold” and set a $55 price target, implying he expects the stock to jump 25 percent over Friday’s $43.94 close, according to this AP report.

“”We believe EA has a strong (product slate for the second half of the year) that should drive growth and serve as a catalyst for the stock,” Ernst said.

“The company plans to launch such titles as Mercenaries 2 and Left 4 Dead later this year,” he said. “In addition, the 20th anniversary of the popular Madden NFL game will likely debut in August, helping the company’s sports line.”

This news will come as a surprise to many after EA shares have slipped 25 percent this fiscal year.

By Mike Bowden

According to this article on its official site, Rare can now boast 100 million software sales since the company launched in 1985.

“The result of releasing more than 100 titles across systems ranging from NES to Xbox 360 does seem like something worth mentioning, even if a couple of those titles were Taboo and Sesame Street 123 (everyone has to eat, you know),” says the article.

“Recent assistance in achieving the 100 million figure has come from the likes of Perfect Dark Zero (over 1.5m units to date), Kameo: Elements of Power and Viva Piñata (approaching 1m apiece).

“With Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and two new Viva Piñata titles on Xbox 360 and DS set to launch in the coming months, plus of course all the other intriguing projects further down the line that we’re too wicked and calculating to tell you about, we don’t anticipate a dramatic sales downturn any time soon. Does that sound a bit pompous? Sorry, us Brits struggle to ‘do’ PR sometimes.

Congratulations to Rare from all of us at VG247!

You haven’t got a fiver we could borrow, have you?

By Mike Bowden

Funcom put out a press release today saying Age of Conan “continues to hold the #1 spot in most markets” and is now the “undisputed #2 subscription MMO in the western world”.

“That Age of Conan remains #1 in retail stores several weeks after release is of incredible importance to us, and proves that the game has a large potential beyond the early adopters,” said Funcom marketing head Morten Larssen.

“With more than 700.000 accounts created so far we have a fantastic platform to build from, and we will continue our marketing spend to further drive numbers in the months to come. It also means that Funcom can dedicate significant development resources on evolving the game even further, naturally giving us a great hope for the future of Age of Conan.”

Hardcore. Press release after the link.

More »

BBFC boss David Cooke’s responded angrily to recent concerns over the affects of Byron Report proposals that will lend the body responsibility to rate all adult games.

Both EA and Microsoft have hit out at the plans, saying games are likely to become later and more expensive in Britain. Not so, said Cooke.

“The BBFC’s current average turnaround time for games classifications is eight calendar days. In terms of international comparisons, this is notably quick. There is no reason why the increased role for the BBFC envisaged by Dr Byron should lead to delays.”

He added:

“The games industry really does have nothing to fear from a set of proposals which would provide more robust, and fully independent, decisions, and detailed content advice, for the British public, and especially parents. The Byron proposals, far from envisaging the collapse of PEGI, specifically provide for a continuing PEGI presence in UK games classification. They also provide significant opportunities to reduce duplication of effort and costs. And they would make wider use of a system, the BBFC’s, which British parents recognize, trust and have confidence in.”

Press release after the link.

More »

According to this press release, Webzen MMOFPS Huxley’s entered open beta in South Korea.

“Huxley is a creative, thrilling and immersive adventure, and we are excited to open the break-through game to the mass public for the first time anywhere in the world,” said Webzen meta-king Nam Ju Kim.

“Huxley combines the unmatched Unreal Engine 3-based first-person shooting action with Webzen’s proprietary networking technology for an online gaming experience like no other. We are expecting great results from the Korean beta, leading to broad anticipation and excitement for Huxley all around the world.”

Still no date on this for Europe. For shame. Out in the US this year.

Again, surprising precisely no one, the Spore Creature Creator has gone top of the NPD PC chart. This is the last lot of these we did. We should probably do them every week, or something. Data for the week ending June 21. Thanks, GI.

1. Spore Creature Creator (EA)
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe (EA)
3. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (Eidos)
4. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack (Vivendi>
5. World Of Warcraft (Vivendi)
6. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest (Vivendi)
7. The Sims 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack (EA)
8. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff Expansion Pack (EA)
9. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision)
10. Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (LucasArts)

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is number one in Britain, surprising no one. Second place, though, goes to Battelfield: Bad Company, which is a good showing for a great game. Go buy it, if you haven’t already. Last week’s charts here. Data for the week ending June 28.

1. Super Smash Bros Brawl (Nintendo)
2. Battlefield: Bad Company (EA)
3. LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (LucasArts)
4. Wii Fit (Nintendo)
5. Big Beach Sports (THQ)
6. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Konami)
7. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
8. Top Spin 3 (2K Sports)
9. Beijing 2008 (Sega)
10. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar)