Monthly Archives: August 2008

EA’s moved Dead Space’s release date forward a week in Europe. The game will now launch on PS3 and 360 on October 24.

The PC version, however, will still release on October 31.

The date’s been moved for the console version’s, apparently, as the game’s been finished early.

Press release after the link.

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Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has said that the developer’s platform tech director – Corrinne Yu – moving to Microsoft is “really exciting.” This probably does mean Halo 4′s on the way, then.

“We are really excited about Corrinne joining Microsoft,” Pitchford told MTV.

“I expect her to bring a lot of passion and inventiveness on that side. I think there is a lot of value for everyone for this transition.”

“Meanwhile,” he continued, “Gearbox is really excited about the changes we’ve made to our Platform department in-line with finishing Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway in order for our platform engineers to support the multi-platform launches of Aliens: Colonial Marines, Borderlands and an un-announced big-ticket game.”

Which is Halo 4. Probably. Probably yes. More through the link.

Speaking in the latest Blizzard podcast, Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson has confirmed that the game’s underlying tech is basically done, and that the team is currently focused on making content.

“A lot of the team is really production focused now and we’re generating content for the most part; a lot of the tech and underlying engine is really solid,” Wilson said.

Don’t bet on seeing the game any time soon, however.

“If we haven’t rebuilt something five times it really doesn’t deserve to be shipped,” Wilson added. “That’s pretty much our policy.”

Listen to the full thing through the link or read more quotes on Eurogamer.

Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce reckons you might be getting a fourth StarCraft II race “in the event” of an expansion to the RTS sequel.

“We don’t have the resources or time to add a fourth race to the launch of StarCraft II, but I’m sure in the event that we decide to do an expansion set it’s a feature that’ll come up for discussion,” the company boss told VG247.

StarCraft II will feature the three races from the first game – the Terrans, the Zerg and the Protoss – but a fourth had been considered early on in development.

“We talked about the possibility of a fourth race early on, but we felt like we had a finite amount of great ideas and wanted to make sure we focused all the cool, best ideas on the existing three races rather than diluting those ideas across four races,” Pearce added.

StarCraft II currently has no release date, but is looking likely for 2009.

Nintendo revised already “out of control” profit estimates today, saying it now expects to clear 650 billion yen ($6 billion) in the year to March, up from its previous forecast of 530 billion yen.

The soft yen, as well as silly demand for Wii and DS, had prompted the change, said the firm.

“The fact that Nintendo is confident to say even before the end of the first half, that overseas sales are this strong, will likely help the stock ride a wave towards the Christmas shopping season,” said Koki Shiraishi, an analyst at the Daiwa Institute of Research.

All we can see is Iwata and Miyamoto, naked, hysterically laughing while rutting holes in a wall of solid gold. More on Reuters.

Mutants blowing things up is clearly going to be de rigueur in 2009, with both id’s Rage and Gearbox’s Borderlands – of which you can see new screens on GameInfoWire – vying for attention next year.

Guns, explosions, dune buggies, Tina Turner. Everything you’d expect. Take a look.

Codemasters has appointed four new execs to its senior management team in a bid to keep the company on the “fast track”, following three fiscal years of double digit growth.

Axel Herr is the firm’s new senior VP of publishing for EMEA, previously MD of THQ in Germany and Nintendo of Europe. Former EA European studios marketing director Alex Bertie has been named VP for Brand & Marketing.

Matt Jeffery, previously of SCE, is now Codemasters’ director of Digital Technologies, while ex-finance director for Sony BMG, Paul Martin, joins as VP of finance in September.

Press release after the link.

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After the break. Still looks cool, but not as much as it did before. All a bit “generic action” now, but Marky Mark’s sex face should pull it through, as it were. Take a look. Film’s out next year.

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Kotaku sends word that Microsoft is expanding its internal Halo team for something big, but this time it’s not a rumor.

“As the Halo franchise continues to flourish, Microsoft Game Studios is growing its internal team to develop future Halo projects,” said a Microsoft rep.

Additionally, the big M confirmed that Gearbox director of technology Corinne Yu has hopped aboard the new flagship in the Xbox 360 armada, and that she brought her husband – a former art director at id Software – along for the ride. Kotaku’s sources say that they’ll both be working on Peter Jackson’s mysterious Halo spinoff.

And so the wait continues.

By Nathan Grayson

Following news this morning that Square Enix is making a serious move to buy Tecmo, the company has released a statement saying it’s offering a 30 percent premium on the target’s stock. From Kotaku:

Square Enix has released a statement explaining his Tecmo takeover plan. It includes offering to purchase a controlling interest in Tecmo by purchasing shares in that company at 30 percent premium (¥960 a share compared to yesterday’s close price of ¥706 a share). The Tecmo Board of Directors has until September 4 to approve or reject this offer. If rejected, Square states, “We will withdraw our offer.”

More through the link.

According to this Gamespot report, Microsoft’s announced that Ninja Gaiden II has now sold more than 1 million units worldwide.

That’s pretty much it. Tecmo will be pleased. This probably isn’t the biggest Tecmo story breaking today, however.

“The Season” is kicking off properly now, with the first of the mad retail rush’s big products hoving into view, not least of which is Pandemics Mercenaries 2. Watch its launch trailer after the break.

Game’s out on Friday in the US and next week in Europe. Looks explosion-packed.

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Everything’s down a lot compared to last week. We won’t pretend to know why. Thanks, Media Create.

• DS – 55,995
• PSP – 47,604
• Wii – 35,173
• PS3 – 9,020
• PS2 – 8,420
• Xbox 360 – 3,551

Trixie360′s hot. She sounds hot. She may not be hot. Go and find out! You can meet all the chaps from the Major Nelson podcast, including the man himself, e and Trixie at PAX if you’re in Seattle this weekend. Details from Nelson’s blog:

• Who: Me, e, litheon, Trixie360 some of the Gamerscore blog folks and who ever else we can round up from the Xbox team
• What: Great burgers…need I say more?
• Why: Because you need to eat
• Where: The Red Mill at 1613 W Dravus St in Seattle [+1 206 284 6363] (Directions)
• When: Friday, August 29th from 1pm-2pmish.

Do it, PAX people. Send us pictures of Trixie.

And on the 0.5th day, God pre-loaded the universe. Or, so your hideous race of Will Wright-approved creatures’ Bible will probably attest, as you can now preload nearly all of Spore from EA’s Download Manager.

There are, however, a few stipulations. For one, you have to preorder the game, but few could botch that hurdle.

Finishing the download and activating the game might weed out a few of the weaker among you, though. Apparently the process will take up to an hour, and with the servers creaking under the pressure of Spore’s highly anticipated launch, it could take even longer.

Also, the Mac version is retail-only, but we’d probably run a second news article if it weren’t.

Spore is finally arriving on September 7, and well, what else is there to say?

Thanks, Kotaku.

By Nathan Grayson

According to Nintendo, Olivia Newton-John is to “do” the Christmas Brain Training DS ads in New Zealand, as part of a campaign that includes five DS and six Wii marketing efforts between September and the end of the year.

According to the firm, “New Zealand will be home to a strong supply of Nintendo products” from September 1,” hopefully bringing an end to a rocky period of distribution news in the country for Nintendo.

Press release after the link. Thanks, GoNintendo.

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On Kotaku. The European art was released earlier this month. Game’s out in October.

And look in the top left corner.

According to this Perfect-Rare story – translated from the Dutch by Gamer.tm – the Dutch (and Belgian) versions of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise are to cost more than elsewhere as they’ve been fully localised.

The rest of Europe ill pay €39 for the games, while if you want to play in Dutch it’ll cost you €59.

“We decided to fully translate both titles, which drove up costs,” a spokesperson said.

“If you look at the Dutch speaking market, then it’s hard to spread the costs across a limited number of consumers.

“A French or a German version, for instance, would be subject to the same costs, but the costs would fall due to there being a larger number of users.”

Don’t moan. If you want to play it in English, buy it in English. At least you have the option of buying it in Dutch. If you go and buy the Dutch version, maybe more companies will translate games into Dutch instead of just assuming you can speak English so you don’t want to play in your local language, right? Alstublieft? Dank u wel.

Update 2: Square’s released a statement saying it’s prepared to pay a 30 percent premium on Tecmo’s stock. Details here.

Update: It’s been announced. IGN’s reporting it as well.

According to this sourceless Kotaku piece, Square Enix is to make an imminent takeover move on beleaguered publisher, Tecmo. From the piece:

Today at 1pm Japan Time, Square Enix will be outlining its plans for a friendly takeover troubled game maker Tecmo. Square Enix’s takeover would help the company gain a stronger foothold in the U.S. market with popular Tecmo titles like the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive games. What’s more, Tecmo’s games will help strengthen Square Enix’s current portfolio, which is heavily dependent on RPGs.

Hopefully more will come out about this later in the day.

Get the full thing on the US PS Blog. The Last Guy’s the star, and for $10 you’d be a bit daft to not try it. You can see all the European stuff added yesterday here.