Monthly Archives: October 2008

Kotaku, official Hallowe’en home of Nintendo information, has published a list of first-party Wii and DS bestsellers, including sales for the first six months of this fiscal year and life-time figures.

Did you know New Super Mario Bros. has sold 15.89 million copies to date? You do now.

Take a look.

Registration’s opened for GDC 2009, taking place in San Francisco on March 23-27 next year. A form’s available from the official site.

“The Game Developers Conference prides itself on continually improving the conference experience based on the needs of our attendees and the industry,” said event director Meggan Scavio.

“With the help of feedback from the community, our advisory board, and editorial staff, we’ve crafted a conference this year that speaks to the changing landscape of the games industry.

“You can expect more specialised content through our new and existing summits in conjunction with compelling talks in our main conference.”

Thanks, GI.

According to this De Standaard piece, games rentals will be banned in Belgium as of December 1.

Gamemania – the largest specialist game retailer in Belgium – says in the piece that rentals make up 10 percent of its revenue.

Apparently the practice has always been illegal in the country, but has been tolerated until now.

No longer. Thanks, NeoGAF.

Nelson’s just confirmed that the 360 version of the Mirror’s Edge demo is now up on Xbox Live.

Blurb:

[ESRB: T (Teen) BLOOD,LANGUAGE,VIOLENCE] Download the Mirror’s Edge demo to experience this award-winning First-Person Action-Adventure. The tutorial will guide you through the basics of movement and combat before you try out your skills in the prologue to the main game.

It released for PS3 yesterday. The game’s out next month.

CD Projekt’s issued a sarcastic press release confirming that The Witcher’s sold 1 million units in 12 months at retail.

“CD Projekt RED is proud to announce that The Witcher, the epic RPG that puts players in the morally lenient boots of the aforementioned anti-hero, has sold more than a million copies to real, live people since its release twelve months ago,” said the company.

“Scientific research has proven that those sales numbers are quite good for a debut game based on a relatively unfamiliar IP from an unknown studio on a ‘dead’ platform.”

Michal Kicinski, co-founder of CD Projekt, went on to say that the RPG may be looking at a console future.

“This is really just the beginning for us,” he said. “There are a lot more places to explore in the world of The Witcher and there’s obviously a huge audience out there that would still love to see the game on consoles

“We’re PC developers first and foremost, but you never know!”

Full thing after the break.

More »

CVG’s published a set of new Conduit shots twice, for some reason. There’s nowt queer as folk.

The Wii shooter’s on the way to market via Sega, as is now confirmed, as does appear to be “good.” Look and see.

Kotaku’s published a huge 2009 release schedule from Nintendo, detailing all announced games in all territories for the coming year.

It’s a whopper, so take a look through there. There’s nothing especially concrete in there about stuff that isn’t especially concrete, if you see what we mean, but it’s good shit nonetheless.

VG247 reader revolting brings word that the New Xbox Experience preview has now gone live. He’s been using it, and everything.

Microsoft sent out mails earlier this week promising those lucky enough to be selected to pre-test the UI before general release on November 19 would have the update on their machines before November 1.

Microsoft: good for its word.

The company held a UK preview even yesterday for NXE, the results of which are embargoed until Monday. We couldn’t go due to baby-related stuff, but we’ll be sure to bring you all the news as it pops up on other sites next week.

Thanks, revolting!

Update: EA’s just confirmed that the game’s still in production.

VG247 has learnt from an EA employee that the majority of the LMNO team has been laid off at EALA.

LMNO was the codename for the “ultra-real” Spielberg game being worked on at the studio.

The fate of the game itself is unclear: we’ve been told that “almost everyone on the team has gone.”

The title’s has been in the works for several years, and has included concepts like motion-capturing tear movements in an effort to induce “emotion” in the player.

Today’s talk emerged after EA said yesterday it was to lay off 6 percent of its overall workforce in the wake of Q2 losses.

More soon, hopefully.

According to this Variety report, EA is currently working on a game based on Dante’s Inferno, the film rights to which are currently being fought over by US movie studios.

The game is to be released late next year, says the report, and is thought to be a modern interpretation of the classic poem.

No other details were given.

As you can see in the video after the break, Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are to appear in Mercenaries 2 as DLC.

Topical. Watch and believe.

More »

Bloody hell. PS3 sales collapsed further in Japan this week, falling below the 4,000 mark for the first time.

PSP sales came back to earth after a monster previous week, and 360 held steady.

Last week’s charts here. Data for the week ending October 26.

• PSP – 60,467
• Wii – 24,292
• DS – 22,965
• Xbox 360 – 7,844
• PS2 – 6,962
• PS3 – 3,931

David Jaffe has responded to questions on his next project from Game City in Nottingham by telling an assembled crowd to “fuck off.”

“We haven’t announced anything yet,” he said when asked if he was working on Twisted Metal for PS3.

“Now FUCK OFF.”

The missive was relayed by text message after audio failed during a remote session at the UK event.

Some questions did get answered without expletives. He’s lost interest in GTA, apparently, and if your team doesn’t end up hating you a bit by the end of a project you’re probably not doing your job right.

More on Eurogamer.

Get it on the US PS Blog. It’s demo central, and American PlayStation 3 owners are all mayors, seemingly. As well as the Mirror’s Edge and EndWar demos included in the Euro update, or Stateside counterparts got WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 and Alone in the Dark teasers as well.

Full details through there.

During yesterday’s EA earnings conference call – following the release of Q2 financials – CEO John Riccitiello revealed that, thus far, Mercenaries 2 has moved 1.9 million copies — meaning that the highly explosive, Mohawk-sporting take on the GTA formula probably won’t be coming to a halt any time soon.

Riccitiello felt the newly christened word “sequelable” could be slapped on the Mercenaries franchise, so Mercenaries 3 is virtually confirmed. Oh, and Mercenaries 10, as well, apparently. Yes, he actually said that.

EA’s making fire and explosions predictable – mundane, even. Please Lord, just end it all now.

Thanks, Kotaku.

By Nathan Grayson

The US PS Blog brings word that the first LittleBigPlanet DLC will release on November 6.

The free content will consist of a Hallowe’en suit and the already-seen Sackboy spacesuit.

Yep, you can pay for more, should you feel the need. While not releasing next week, there are details through there on suits for $0.99, “Premium Sackboy Costumes” for $1.99, “Basic SackBoy Costume Bundles” for $2.99 and “Premium SackBoy Costume Bundles” for $5.99.

More through there.

Kazunori Yamauchi’s laughed off talk of a 2010 release date for GT5, saying in a fan interview that the game will be released sooner than people think.

“No, no,” he said when asked if the racer’s full version would release in 2010.

“Don’t worry much about that. It’s going to be sooner than expected.”

GTPlanet user Super_fla got to meet Yamauchi on a visit to Polyphony in Japan, as you can see here, and put the question to the driving dev overlord.

And he got him to sign his white PS3. As you do.

According to this Eurogamer report, Guitar Hero World Tour “super bundles” will arrive on 360, PS3 and Wii on November 14 in Europe, consisting of all the instrments and the game.

The PS2 pack will be available on November 21.

“We’re delighted to confirm the release dates for all formats and bundles. Guitar Hero World Tour is the one of the most anticipated games launches this year so I’d recommend that everyone gets their orders in quick for the Christmas rush,” Activision’s David Tyler told MCV magazine.

“The free bass guitar controller offer running with all pre-orders has been exceptionally well received, and we can’t wait to see the reaction when the game hits the shelves.”

In an earnings call following some nasty second quarter financials yesterday, EA boss John Riccitiello said the firm is to spend $150 million on digital distribution models in the current financial year.

“In the future we see slower growth in the basic packaged goods business, and higher margins, greater growth and reduced cyclicality with these new direct-to-consumer businesses,” he said.

Are you listening, Mr High Street Buyer?

COO John Pleasants said EA is on track to generate $185 million in online revenue this fiscal year.

Riccitiello added that Burnout Paradise, the company’s first full-scale console digital download, had achieved sales of 20,000 in its first three weeks at market.

Thanks, Edge.

In the latest episode of IGN’s Nintendo Voice Chat podcast, Nintendo guru Matt Casamassina spoke of a recent “hang-out” session with NOA president Reggie Fils-Aime in which, if Casamassina’s take on the tale is to be believed, the two had a chat about videogames. More specifically, Wii why-God-why sim Disaster: Day of Crisis.

Apparently, Reggie isn’t flashing his trademark kind-of-a-grin at this one. Said Casamassina:

“We hung out with Reggie, and basically, he doesn’t think Disaster is a $50 game. Especially in terms of audio, which he said is laughable. He said he’s going to watch it and see how it performs in Europe. If it does well, you’ll probably get it in America, and if it’s a bomb, you probably won’t.”

So yeah. Sounds like money well spent.

Thanks, Infendo.

By Nathan Grayson