Monthly Archives: January 2009

D3Publisher has confirmed to Eurogamer that Puzzle Quest: Galactrix will as be available on PSN as well as XBLA, PC and DS.

Confusion apparently arose when the PC flash site displayed a PlayStation logo ,as D3Publisher had only mentioned the other formats previously.

“Puzzle Quest Galactrix will be available on PSN and Xbox Live in additional to PC and DS,” said a spokesperson when we asked.

Game’s out in March.

By Mike Bowden

According to Eurogamer it is. A “secret source” has told them that it’ll have a wintry theme too.

Despite Capcom’s “No comment” when asked about Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics as reported by GoNintendo, “a person who knows about this sort of thing has since confirmed the sequel is in the works, and will have a wintry theme,” says EG.

We all concur that a sequel to one of the best selling games of last year – 5 million copies in 3 months – is a bit of a no-brainer.

More though the link.

By Mike Bowden

2K has release some new screenshots from it’s Mafioso open-worlder and we hope you’ll agree that this is look excellent.

Development team 2K Czech promises a brand new purpose built engine as it looks to capitalise on the ardent fanbase of the original.

Mafia II will be released for PC, 360 and PS3 in the autumn.

Images after the break.

By Mike Bowden

More »

Capcom has said that even though Australian distribution firm Red Ant has gone under, it doesn’t expect delays its titles.

“Certain recent news reports have speculated that owing to the financial status of Red Ant, Capcom’s distributor in Australia, that the release dates of Capcom’s forthcoming titles in this territory may be delayed,” the company said to CVG.

“Capcom would like to state it does not expect any such delays and to reconfirm the following release dates: Street Fighter IV (PS3 & 360) – February 20th, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop (Wii) – February 27th, Resident Evil 5 (PS3 & 360) – March 13th.

“Future titles such as MotoGP (Nintendo Will) and Neopets Puzzle Adventure (DS, Wii & PC) are all scheduled to release in line with other PAL territories,” Capcom added.

By Mike Bowden

The Major has updated to reveal that the demo for Monolith’s highly anticipated action shooter sequel, F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin, is now available for download for what appears to be Live Gold subscribers only.

It weighs in at 759Mb and you can add it to your download queue by clicking here.

The demo is not available in Germany or Asia.

By Mike Bowden

Sony has told videogaming247 that if its live action replay trials via PSP go well at Arsenal Football Club, they’ll be looking to “roll it out” to other clubs in the future.

“Arsenal is the only club/ground we’re trailing this technology in, for the moment,” a senior Sony representative told us this morning.

“[However] depending on successful trials, it’s likely we’ll look to roll it out with other clubs.”

The new tech will allow for fans watching games live on the terraces to see instant action replays via PSP. Which is pretty bloody smart, if we’re being honest.

By Mike Bowden

Major Nelson informs us that a Guitar Hero World Tour song bundle containing tunes from Australian artists, aptly titled ‘The Aussie Track Pack’, is now available for download.

As per the norm, the track pack costs 440 MS Points and individual tracks from Aussie artists like Wolfmother and The Vines cost 160 Points each.

Full details through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Spore senior producer Morgan Roarty has told CVG that in order for a console version of Spore to be considered the design would first have to be in place.

“I think first and foremost we’d have to have the right design,” said Roarty.

“The obvious out of the box thinking would be to port the PC product… but I don’t think that’s really the right design. [We'd] possibly go deeper into space… but in my mind, before something like that would get greenlit, it would have to be the right design.”

Roarty also said that he expects four new Spore titles in 2009.

Full interview through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Xbox 360 director of product management, Aaron Greenberg has told videogaming247 that he expects 360 sales to continue their momentum in 2009 as this is the company’s first full year “at mass market pricing.”

He also told us that he feels fortunate Microsoft can offer Xbox 360 at half the price of PS3 and less than Nintendo Wii on a global scale.

“We are very excited about 2009 especially coming off the largest year in the history of our business in 2008,” said Greenberg to VG247 this morning. “We expect to see continued momentum in 2009 with our first full year at mass market pricing.”

“Similar to the approach we have taken in prior years, we don’t reveal our plans for the full year on January 1st and like to surprise consumers with announcements closer to when the products are available for release.

“But with that said, we have a lot for Xbox 360 owners to be excited about this spring including stuff like Halo Wars, Xbox LIVE Primetime, Resident Evil 5, GTA IV: The Lost and Damned, Street Fighter IV, and Star Ocean: The Last Hope just to name a few,” he added.

“This of course does not include our leading high definition entertainment library that continues to grow with new releases every week or our exclusive all-you-can-eat Netflix offering in the US with more than 12,000 instant watch movies and TV shows.”

Michael Pachter told VG247 last week that he expects Microsoft to reduce the price of the 360 even further in 2009. We asked Aaron Greenberg if he could echo that sentiment:

“Regarding another price cut, we have nothing to announce at this time and feel fortunate that we are able to offer consumers the Xbox 360 at half the price of the PS3 and even less than the Wii on a global basis.”

By Mike Bowden

Some new high res scans from the latest issue of Game Informer have emerged of EA Sports’ boxing extravaganza Fight Night Round 4.

As you can see after the break, the character models looks extremely detailed and the way the boxer’s sweat glistens in the spotlights is impressive.

Go see.

By Mike Bowden

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Kotaku has obtained the marketing instructions for Namco Bandai’s rather odd looking Noby Noby Boy revealing that the PSN title is not a “so-called game.”

Well, what is it then, we hear you cry? The release note unfortunately doesn’t say, but instead directs you to look at images and videos on the internet.

So, at Namco Bandai’s request you can watch a trailer for the game here and see if you can work out what it is.

One thing the marketing instructions did say, however, was that Noby Noby Boy will be available worldwide on February 19.

Full marketing instructions after the break.

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Sony Corp. has revised its consolidated forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31 by announcing that the operating income of its “Game segment” is to be lowered by ¥30 billion (approx €259m).

“In the Game segment, operating income (loss) is expected to be lower by approximately ¥30 billion,” said Sony. “Of this, approximately ¥15 billion is due to the impact of the appreciation of the yen and approximately ¥15 billion is due to lower-than-expected sales.”

Thanks, Kotaku.

By Mike Bowden

Ubisoft will publishe Massive Entertainment’s World in Conflict PC expansion pack dubbed Soviet Assault, writes Shacknews.

If you don’t yet own the game, there will be World in Conflict: Complete Edition which will include the expansion and some “new features.” This will be available at retail the same time as the expansion becomes available.

However, dates for console versions of the wartime strategy title weren’t mentioned, but two new screenshots were released.

You can see those after the break.

By Mike Bowden

More »

A third patch for the excellent Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria is due for release today, and fixes a couple of issues with the Captain class and a handful of other minor bugs.

The patch notes are:

Captain
The following issues have been resolved when Master of War is traited.

• Escort NPCs will no longer attack you when using “Noble Mark”.
• Noble Mark will no longer generate 40 times the intended threat. Yes, I said 40 TIMES.

Volume 2, Book 3 Chapter 9
Thili should now be responsive to all players and advance after defeating the Orcs at the Bridge of Khazad-Dum. You can now get out.

Misc
The odd triangles on male elves wearing Lorien armor have been addressed.

Info courtesy of the official forums.

By Mike Bowden

Gamestop’s grip on the secondhand market has been responsible for its financial success in 2008, according to this Wall Street Journal report. The retailer showed a 22 percent increase in sales last year.

Sales of used games are expected to reach $2 billion, or 23 percent, of GameStop’s revenue for its fiscal year ending Jan. 31, according to Pacific Crest Securities.

That’s up from $1.6 billion, or 22.4 percent, of revenue a year earlier.

The focus on used game sales has kept Gamestop ahead of competition such as Best Buy and Circuit City, the former dropping 12 percent of sales last year, the latter learning a far harder lesson: it’s been liquidated.

“Nobody else has that used-games draw,” said retail analyst Joseph Feldman of Telsey Advisory Group.

“Once you have played a game awhile and it loses its value, GameStop is pretty much the only place where you can get something for it, and that’s a big deal in this economy.”

Lots more through there.

G4′s posted the first four minutes of Th Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, as you can see after the break.

There’s a lot of talking and floating around in space going on there, but it’s very pretty nonetheless.

The Atari-published game releases in March for PC, PS3 and 360.

More »

Following some spectacular verbal duelling between the console platform holders on the state of play between PS3 and Xbox 360 this week, Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter has told GameDaily he believes both sides make valid points.

Kicking off the latest war of words between Sony and Microsoft, PlayStation boss Kaz Hirai told the UK OPM that Xbox 360 had “longevity” issues and that PS3 was the “official” leader in the games arms race.

Xbox’s Aaron Greenberg responded by calling Sony “out of touch” and saying that 360′s US lead was unassailable, among other things. He probably said something about Kaz’s “mom,” too.

“Aaron Greenberg is right that Sony likely won’t catch Microsoft in the US until at least 2014,” said Pachter.

“Kaz is right that Sony will likely catch Microsoft globally.”

The analyst added:

“Please keep in mind that both consoles are offered in North America, Europe and Japan. Sony likely has a 4 million unit lead in Japan, is behind by 7 million in North America, and is behind in Europe by 2 million. My guess is that Sony can sell 2 million PS3s per year more than Microsoft in Japan for the next several years, and can catch up in Europe in two or three years. So by the end of 2011, Sony should be even in Europe, ahead by 10 million units in Japan, and behind by a greater margin than 7 million in North America. If the Xbox 360 outsells the PS3 by 1 million units per year for 2009, 2010 and 2011, the two consoles will be in a dead heat by the end of 2011.

“You should note that the 360 outsold the PS3 in the U.S. by 1.2 million units in 2008 (according to NPD), with an average price of $300 compared to an average for PS3 of $418. If PS3 comes down to $299 some time this year, it’s likely that the two consoles will sell around the same number of units, with a slight edge to Sony because of Blu-ray. If the 360 price is cut further, Microsoft can likely sustain its advantage, but it may have difficulty selling 1 million more per year.”

Expect more clashes of the titans as we move through the year.

Following a rumour of staff cuts at EA Tiburon, company exec Craig Hagen has confirmed redundancies at the headline sports studio are a reality.

He would not say how many employees were laid off, but he said some of the reductions may have been achieved by freezing open positions. He also declined to say if severance packages were offered.

“The economy is affecting every industry including ours and we need to tighten our belts and reduce our operating costs,” Hagen told the Orlando Sentinel.

He added that between 650 and 700 people were still employed at the studio, and that the cuts would not drastically affect ongoing work on the likes of Madden and Tiger Woods.

The losses are the latest in the round of EA lay-offs aimed at cutting costs.

Killzone 2′s off to manufacturing, SCEA’s confirmed on the PSBlog.

The game’s confirmed for a February 27 launch in both the US and Europe, and is looking like the definite epicentre of hotness for next month.

A good reason to finally invest in an HD cable for your PS3, anyway.

Following news yesterday that God of War III wil be shown to both US and European press next month, 1UP’s dated the event exactly for February 10.

The showing will be held in LA.

Details on what’s the be shown are non-existent thus far, but any “new stuff” will melt the internet, obviously.

A 2009 release date seems pretty much certain, now. Good, huh?