Monthly Archives: November 2008

DS Lite and Xbox 360 have had something of a renaissance compared to last week in Japan, with sales of each both rising, well, lots.

PS3 sales were static, as were DSi’s. Wii’s doubled, selling to all the fabled Japanese people that still don’t own one.

Last week’s data here.

• DSi – 88,843
• PSP – 61,226
• Wii – 35,298
• DS Lite – 18,580
• PS3 – 17,436
• Xbox 360 – 15,474
• PS2 – 5,281

The GameStop page is showing GTA IV DLC The Lost and Damned as a boxed product for $20.

Apparently the packaging will include “a 2 sided poster and an Xbox LIVE Marketplace token card. The token card will contain a unique code to purchase The Lost and Damned over the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.”

There’s no disc inside the pack: just the token to get the DLC. And you’ll need to have the original game to download it, obviously.

$20, eh?

According to this IGN article, the PC version of GTA IV will have a maximum limit of 32 players in online play.

This is twice the amount in the console versions.

There’s a hands-on with PC multiplay through the link.

Via Shacknews and Kotaku.

Gamerscoreblog’s asking for reader questions on Ensemble’s Halo Wars, so if there’s an issue burning a hole in your mind about the 360 RTS, now’s your time to pour water on it. Or something.

There’s no news, OK? Thanks, X3F.

Thanksgiving means nothing to Europe, aside from the fact we almost got an evening off last night for the first time in ten months. Sony, however, just kept putting out the PSN content as normal. It just doesn’t care.

Here’s everything, stolen from Eurogamer.

PS3 Games

• Age of Booty (GBP 7.99)

PSP Games

• LocoRoco 2 (GBP 23.99)
• KAZooK (GBP 6.29)
• Carol Vorderman’s Sudoku (GBP 6.29)

PSone games on PS3/PSP Store

• Syndicate Wars (GBP 3.99)

PS3 Demos

• Age of Booty (free)
• Dead Space (free)
• GTI Club+ (free)

PS3 Add-ons

• Far Cry 2 Fortunes Pack (GBP 7.99)
• G1 Jockey 4 2008 – Additional Horses 2 (free)
• LittleBigPlanet – Turkey Head Costume (free)
• LittleBigPlanet – Chimera Costume (GBP 1.59)

PS3 Guitar Hero World Tour stuff

• The Killers Track Pack (GBP 4.79)
• The Killers – “Human” (GBP 1.59)
• The Killers – “Mr. Brightside” (GBP 1.59)
• The Killers – “Losing Touch” (GBP 1.59)

PS3 Rock Band stuff

• Laid to Rest – “Lamb of God” (GBP 0.99)
• Soundgarden – “Jesus Christ Pose” (GBP 0.99)
• Soundgarden – “Pretty Noose” (GBP 0.99)
• The Killers Pack 01 (GBP 2.49)
• The Killers – “Mr. Brightside” (GBP 0.99)
• The Killers – “Smile Like You Mean It” (GBP 0.99)
• The Killers – “Spaceman” (GBP 0.99)
• Yngwie Malmsteen Pack 01 (GBP 2.49)
• Yngwie Malmsteen – “Caprici Di Diablo” (GBP 0.99)
• Yngwie Malmsteen – “Damnation Game” (GBP 0.99)
• Yngwie Malmsteen – “Red Devil” (GBP 0.99)

Eurogamer’s reporting that the European version of SOCOM: Confrontation won’t be out until early next year.

No reason’s been given for the delay.

The game’s out in America already.

According to X3F, Epic’s released the first Gears of War 2 patch, the main thrust of which is to solve long waiting times in matching multiplayer games.

Epic’s Rod Fergusson is optimistic that today’s patch will squash Gears 2′s online multiplayer problems, saying that he hopes “the matchmaking issues we’ve seen up till now are a thing of the past.”

More through there.

Nelson’s confirmed that the Red Alert 3 demo’s up on Live.

The PC demo was released earlier this week.

If you don’t have anything better to do with your Thanksgiving, your problem is now solved.

Valve’s put a THQ Collector Pack up on Steam, containing pretty much every decent PC game the publisher’s put out in the last five years.

It’s yours for $100, a saving of $148 over buying the lot separately.

Go on. It’s the holidays. Sort of.

All those lovely Live discounts this weekend are US-only because it simply couldn’t be done anywhere else, according to Major Nelson.

“I gave the feedback about having this available for other regions, but due to a lot of issues it was not possible,” said the exec in response to inevitable whining for European gamers.

The Black Friday cuts see deals such as Rez HD for 500 Microsoft Points (£4.25), the Guitar Hero Metallica Death Magnetic album for 1440 points (£12.24) and some new premium themes for 180 points (£1.53).

Thanks, CVG.

UK retailer GameStation is to cut the price of Fable II to £20 in a promotion next week, if pictures of promotional leaflets we’ve just been sent are to be believed.

We’ve been advised that this may go live this Friday “if they feel like it,” so keep your eyes peeled tomorrow if you fancy getting yourself a copy for a song.

See the full image after the break.

More »

Ubisoft has moved swiftly to quell comments made by Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Pachter, that said Assassin’s Creed 2 will be set in 1700s.

“This is only a rumor and we would prefer not to comment on rumors,” said the rep.

The game has now been confirmed by Ubisoft, but details and a date have yet to be aired.

By Mike Bowden

Gamestop executive marketing vice president, Tony Bartel, has told Gamespot that the US retailer now has a “full week’s supply of Wiis.”

“We actually have slightly over a week’s supply of Wiis, which is great,” he said. “We haven’t been there ever since the launch, and so we’re excited about being there.”

Not bad considering the console has been out for a couple of years now. December NPD will be very interesting indeed, we reckon.

Full Q&A through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Capcom’s confirmed that the December 5 Resident Evil 5 demo announced for Japan yesterday will make it west, but it’s going to take longer.

“What does this mean to you, Joe Sixpack, denizen of the Land of the Free and the Home of the Collapsing Economy? Not much,” said Capcom on its blog.

“Resident Evil 5 is still on track for the previously-announced Friday the 13th, March 2009, release in both North America and Europe. Fear not, we will also be seeing demos for both the 360 and PS3 versions of the game, but they will be hitting N. America a bit later than the Japanese demo. Stay tuned, more to come on the demos soon!”

More through there.

EA’s taken umbrage at the fact German anti-games woman Regina Pfeiffer – sister of the head of Lower Saxony’s Criminological Research Institute (KFN) and outspoken critic of violent videogames, Christian Pfeiffer – described it as “that pig of a company.”

Pfeiffer made the remark in relation to the fact she can’t sue EA as it isn’t German, speaking at the Computer Game and Violence conference in Munich.

“Should Mrs Regina Pfeiffer have actually lost her composure to the point of describing Electronic Arts as being a ‘a pig of a company’, then I can only recommend that she apologises in full – at least, [she should] if she wishes to be taken seriously again in the future,” EA Germany’s PR chief Martin Lorber told Golem.de.

What a to-do. Thanks, Gamer.tm.

Sony is to launch the Get in the Game project today, offering five developers the change to receive £10,000 to prototype new PSN games.

The company will be holding a free workshop in December to provide better insight into PSN development, with attendees invited to pitch ideas to a panel of Sony execs and producers.

More detail on GI.

Dreamcast was born 10 years ago today.

The Sega console released in Japan on November 27, 1998, and didn’t reach the West for another year, launch in the US on September 9, 1999 and Europe on October 14 the same year.

The Japanese machine launched with Godzilla Generations, Virtua Fighter 3tb, PenPen TRiIceLon and July.

Dreamcast’s life was brief: cessation of production was announced of January 31, 2001, thanks mainly to competition from PS2.

Water under the bridge. Happy birthday, little man.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Imagine is to close UK Nintendo mag NRevolution, as you can see here.

The final issue, number 30, will go on sale on December 11.

A combination of factors is blamed for the demise in that WiiWii piece, including the loss of the original team, the downward spiral of print in general and an “identity crisis,” as the site puts it.

The mag didn’t ABC in the last audit period.

Thos who are about to be job-hunting: we salute you.

According to this IGN report, a feature-length movie of Professor Layton’s in the works and planned for a 2010 release in Japan.

Titled Professor Layton The First Movie – points if you can spot parallels with any other Nintendo handheld franchises – the film will feature the same voice cast as the game, with Yo Oizumi as Layton and Maki Horikita as Ruke.

More through there.

The PS Movie Store’s updated early this week as it’s Thanksgiving this weekend, and you should be glad. If you’re American.

There’s far less stuff there this week than normal, but the update does include Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Which is brainless and fun. Which is probably all you can ask for, really.