Monthly Archives: January 2009

EA has told videogaming247 that any rumours regarding a PS3 port of its hit BioWare space RPG, Mass Effect, are… wrong.

It was expected that the franchise would go multiplatform after EA acquired BioWare from MGS for $860m back in Oct 2007. Rumours of a PlayStation 3 port have persisted ever since.

“The rumour regarding Mass Effect being developed for PS3 is inaccurate,” said the rep. “Hope that helps.”

When we asked whether that means any future games in the franchise would remain solely on 360 the rep replied:

“Impossible for EA to provide comment on this given that no such games have been announced.”

Rumours of a sequel were rife earlier this month when a CMPEvents listing revealed that BioWare’s Corey Andruko and Dusty Everman are to hold a talk on Mass Effect 2′s level design at GDC 09.

By Mike Bowden

Ubi confirmed in its Q3 earnings call tonight that Splinter Cell: Conviction is still a 360 exclusive.

A PC version will also ship.

The publisher said earlier this evening that the game will arrive in the following financial year, ending March 2010.

This pegs the game as a near cert for this Christmas.

Thanks, Videogamer.

Rockstar’s lifted a playtest embargo on GTA IV: The Lost and Damned, meaning 3,000 websites have gone live with simultaneous impressions.

The content – exclusive to 360, in case you’d forgotten – will release on Febuary 17. As all these articles will tell you repeatedly.

For ease, some links. Play spot the difference.

• CVG
• Gameplayer
• Eurogamer
• Kikizo
• Kotaku
• Gamespot
• IGN
• 1UP

Ubisoft has delayed Darkworks disaster shooter I am Alive, saying the game “will now bolster the line-up for 2009-10″ in a financial release today.

Ubisoft released its calender Q1 release schedule this week, showing I am Alive as down for shipping before the end of March.

The game will now join Assassin’s Creed 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction for the following financial year.

By Mike Bowden

Ubisoft confirmed a slew of sales figures in its third quarter financials today, showing big numbers for its top line-up as explanation of a 13 percent like-for-like increase in sales for the period.

Far Cry 2 has now sold 2.9 million units, said the firm, while Prince of Persia and Shaun White Snowboarding have sold 2.2 million and 2.3 million copies respectively.

Ubi’s other big hitter for Christmas was Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party, with 1.5 million sold.

All figures are worldwide.

Ubi showed sales of €508 million for the third quarter, up from €450 million in the same period last year.

Ubisoft sales rose 13% to €508 million in 2009′s third quarter, up from €450 million in the same period last year.

The firm also issued nine-month sales for the year today, standing at €852 million for the period ending December 31, up from €711 million in the year previous, a rise of 19.8 percent.

Far Cry 2, Shaun White Snowboarding and Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party were cited as stand-out titles for the third quarter.

Casual games, specifically the company’s Imagine series, showed “very robust performance” in the period, the company said.

Fourth quarter sales will come in between €190 million and €210 million, and full year guidance was tweaked slightly today from €1,050 million to “between €1,040 million and €1,060 million”.

In a Q3 sales release tonight, Ubisoft has confirmed that both will release in the financial year ending March 2010.

“2009-10 looks very promising and our teams are working flat-out to provide gamers with the best the industry has to offer,” said
president Yves Guillemot.

“Our line-up comprises several potential blockbusters with the launch of 7 franchises, including Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon, as well as four license-based games including James Cameron’s Avatar, three new brands and a further-enhanced casual games portfolio.”

The statement said specifically, talking of financial forecasting:

These forecasts have been drawn up taking into account the launch of i) 7 franchise titles, including Assassin’s Creed 2, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and Anno; ii) 3 new brands including I Am Alive; iii) 4 movie license-based games including James Cameron’s Avatar, a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game and the sequel to Arthur and the Invisibles; and iv) an enriched casual games portfolio which will be focused on the successful Petz, Imagine, My Coach and PlayZoneTM series.

Exact dates are uncertain as yet, but both the Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell sequels are likely to be key Christmas games for Ubisoft this year.

For all news from the financial report, hit this.

Age of Conan game director Craig Morrison has confirmed to Eurogamer that Funcom is still working on the MMO for Xbox 360.

“There is a small, dedicated team working on the Xbox platform at the moment,” he said. “We still plan on having a 360 version of the game at some stage but I’m afraid I can’t go into specifics beyond that at the moment.”

“It is a very technical task for a game like ours,”added Morrison.

Full interview through the link.

By Mike Bowden

EG is reporting that Rockstar has priced 360 exclusive GTA IV DLC, The Lost and Damned, at 1600 MS Points.

So, in real world terms, you’re expected to fork out roughly £14/€19 for the expansion when it’s released on February 17.

A new screenshot was released yesterday alongside all the achievement details, in case you didn’t see it then.

Eurogamer will also be publishing its The Lost and Damned preview at 6pm GMT today. So watch out for that.

Update: EG’s preview is now live. Here’s the bit we liked best:

In gameplay terms, the biggest change is that, while Niko was often a lonely figure on missions, Johnny is regularly surrounded by his gang, who provide backup in battles, and company on the road. Thankfully, they take care of themselves pretty well, with no need for Tom Clancy-style squad controls. Instead, there’s a subtle incentive to keep them alive by watching their backs during shoot-outs: any gang members who survives a mission will gradually level up, becoming harder to kill, and sharper of shot. If they’re offed, however, they’ll be replaced by less useful newcomers, and the process begins anew.

Full thing through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Microsoft today announced that due to “the further deterioration of global economic conditions,” it will “eliminate up to 5,000 jobs” over the next 18 months.

1,400 jobs will be cut immediately with R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR and IT all affected.

Microsoft intends to recoup approximately $1.5 billion through the cost-cutting initiative.

“While we are not immune to the effects of the economy, I am confident in the strength of our product portfolio and soundness of our approach,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

“We will continue to manage expenses and invest in long-term opportunities… we will emerge an even stronger industry leader than we are today.”

Microsoft said that 6 million Xbox 360s were sold worldwide between October and December 2008.

The company has yet to specify whether its Entertainment & Devices division will be affected.

By Mike Bowden

EA has announced four new Spore titles EA – two for the DS and one for the Wii, and the new PC expansion – to be launched this year.

Spore Creature Keeper (DS) should be here in the summer and appears to be aimed at a younger audience.

The next DS title, “Spore Hero Arena” is an accompaniment to the new Wii game, “Spore Hero” which will takes you “on an exciting adventure through a beautiful, colourful world,” apparently.

Then, of course, there’s the PC expansion Galactic Adventures which adds the “adventure creator” enabling players to make their own missions and share them with friends.

Full release after the break.

By Mike Bowden

More »

Atari has detailed both the single player content and multiplayer modes for its forthcoming action shooter for PC, 360 and PS3.

For starters, Dark Athena is going to give you 11 hours of brand new gameplay whilst the remade Escape from Butch Bay will offer over nine.

There are six multiplayer modes in total with three traditional gametypes Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and three new ones called , Pitch Black and Arena.

Butcher Bay Riot consists of 12 players split up into teams of Guards, Prisoners and Mercenaries all fighting over one powercell that must be taken to the opposing team’s base for points.

Pitch Black lets you play as one of five Mercenaries hunting down Riddick. When you kill Riddick you become him. Sounds easy? To make it harder, all levels are sheathed in darkness, with only weapons’ flashlights to see by.

Arena is a simple 1 on 1 or 2 on 2 affair that gives you full access to every weapon.

Game’s out next month. We can’t wait.

By Mike Bowden

amBX has announced what it calls “a milestone” as the company releases its free downloadable software development kit today.

“The amBX SDK provides developers with everything they need to get quickly up to speed and at no charge,” said Neil MacDonald, CEO, amBX. “It makes amBX very approachable and this is a major step forward in game development.

“The whole point of amBX is to immerse the player deeper into the game and the amBX SDK now allows developers to harness and control the most powerful immersion experience available in their games. The SDK makes a rather complex operation very simple at extremely low cost.”

Developers can register and download the SDK at http://developer.ambx.com

Full release after the break.

By Mike Bowden

More »

In light of Sony Corp. announcing that it needs reduce its headcount in its Gaming Segment, Videogaming247 has learned that there are currently no plans to reduce SCEE’s staff roster.

Cuts are to be made at Sony, the firm said this morning, in an effort to shed ¥250 billion.

There’s still no confirmation as to where cuts will be made. As soon as we know, so will you.

SCEE president David Reeves has informed staff internally that cuts will not affect games staff.

“This is still the case. He has just sent a message to employees here to that effect,” said a Sony spokesperson to GI.

“As was the case with the previous Sony restructuring announcement this mainly concerns our electronics business.”

By Mike Bowden

Earlier today, Square Enix revealed plans to release its mobile phone title Crystal Defenders for WiiWare, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.

However, Andriasang reports that Microsoft has confirmed that another Square Enix title, Yosumin Live is coming to XBLA.

More interestingly, the site reports that “Microsoft’s press statement notes that the Square Enix plans to bring its popular games as well as original titles to the download service in the future.”

Final Fantasy XBLA, anyone?

We’ll check with Square and Microsoft now.

By Mike Bowden

Media Molecule has announced a total of seven new Sackboy costume kits will be released on PSN over the next few weeks.

There’s a WipEout costume kit, a God of War mini pack and some Groundhog Day attire, what ever that is.

Head over to the PSBlog for some images.

Full list after the break.

By Mike Bowden

More »

Sega Europe president Mike Hayes has told GI that despite Sega US cutting 30 jobs yesterday, the European wing of the company is in “great shape.”

“No, we’re in great shape, in fact we’re still recruiting,” he said. “We’ve reinvented ourselves in the last five years – when I joined the company there were 30 staff, now with full time QA we’re up to 650-something.

“In a way we’ve filled ourselves out, and we’re still filling out Spain and Australia, our network crew which covers Football Manager Live and our PlaySega venture.

“So we’re actually in good shape, and we’re also having a very good trading year. In the market share results we were fourth biggest in the UK. It was Nintendo, EA, Activision Blizzard, then Sega – so we’re actually having a really good time,” added Hayes.

Good for them.

By Mike Bowden

Kotaku’s running a story stating that after this morning’s announcement that the operating income of Sony’s “Game segment” is to be lowered by ¥30 billion (approx €259m), there will also be “a headcount reduction.”

As you can see in the image above (through the link for its entirety), the company Pictures, Music and Game Business will all fact lay-offs as the company tries to shed ¥250 billion.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Joystiq has noticed an Ubisoft job listing on superannuation that reveals the company is looking for a lead designer to work on a “cross-platform music based game” on 360, PS3 and Wii.

Ubi says that to be considered, you must “be self motivated, with a strong work ethic and excellent written and verbal communication skills.”

That’s us out of the running then.

We’ll check with Ubi to see if there’s more.

By Mike Bowden

EA has told videogaming247 that some official screenshots from the high def boxing fest, Fight Night Round 4, should be revealed in the coming weeks.

“We should have screens in a couple of weeks,” said a senior representative to VG247 today.

In case you hadn’t seen, we were treated to some high res Fight Night Round 4 magazine scans this morning.

We also enquired if a release date was forthcoming.

“We still haven’t announced the release date other than 2009,” said the rep. “Hopefully we’ll have more info soon.”

By Mike Bowden