Monthly Archives: February 2009

BAFTA’s released its nominations for this year’s awards, and all the usual suspects are fully represented.

Call of Duty 4 leads the way with seven nominations, GTA IV’s got six and Fable II and LittleBigPlanet have taken five each.

The awards will be announced at the London Hilton on March 10.

All nominations after the break.

More »

EEDAR and Nielsen have teamed up to provide “detailed analysis of historical marketing campaigns in the video game industry,” the pair announced this morning.

Nearly $1 billion was spent in marketing game in the US last year. The new partnership is aimed at providing insight into what works and what doesn’t. There is a recession going on, after all.

“EEDAR is very pleased to work with The Nielsen Company – one of the most trusted names in marketing research,” said EEDAR boss, Gregory Short.

“The integration of Monitor-Plus marketing data and creative assets into EEDAR technologies will redefine how the video game industry can analyze and best leverage the pivotal role marketing plays in the consumer purchase process.”

Press release after the break.

More »

Las Vegas expo DICE has sold out, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences confirmed this morning, a week before it’s to start.

The summit, held at the Red Rock Resort from February 17-20, will include speeches from EA’s John Riccitiello, Capcom’s Jun Takeuchi and Bethesda’s Todd Howard.

“DICE was designed to be an open, collegial and productive gathering so we have always limited our attendance,” said Joseph Olin, president of the AIAS.

“It’s gratifying to see the level of support the Summit receives from our peers, especially in what we all know to be a challenging year.”

More on GI.

Square’s confirmed it delayed its Q3 financials last week because of an accounting mishap.

“Square Enix Holdings changed the company’s 3rd quarter fiscal year 2009 results announcement from February 6th to February 12th due to a delay in its accounting closing procedure,” the company told Kotaku.

The blunder caused Square’s shares to plummet to a five-year low. Get yourself a new bean-counter, Mr Wada.

Can’t wait for Killzone 2? Dream about glowy red eyes? Already made yourself a futuristic Nazi hat in anticipation? Don’t, whatever you do, be tempted to buy one of the promo copies being sold online: you won’t be able to frag your friends.

This Guerrilla post on the US PS boards confirms that promos don’t allow normal online play.

So just wait, little Billy. Remember when you were three and you used to piss yourself with excitement every day for weeks before Christmas? No? You were horrible. Don’t make the world any worse by acting like a brat.

Game’s out on February 27.

Ruffian’s Billy Thomson has reiterated to Edge that the newly-formed Dundee developer’s focus is online gaming, despite the fact single-play will play an important part in its projects.

“It’s not like we’re going to avoid making singleplayer games,‭ ‬we still see a massive market in them,” he said.

“‬But,‭ ‬moving forward,‭ ‬many games are pushing things like co-operative play.‭ ‬If you look at the consoles that are out there now,‭ ‬everybody’s encouraging everyone to stay online,‭ ‬particularly through your friends list on the‭ ‬360,‭ ‬and now with the PS3‭’‬s Home.‭

“We definitely want to keep making solo games‭ – ‬we want to make great solo games‭ – ‬but we see the life of games online.‭ ‬Because when you finish your solo experience,‭ ‬if you want to get anything else out of the‭ ‬£45‭ ‬or‭ ‬$60‭ ‬you’ve spent,‭ ‬it’s going to be through online play.”

This piece was supposed to be published two weeks ago, as we alluded to in this article. Billy and the boys are working on a new Crackdown game, although it’s yet to be announced.

Criterion’s put out the first screens of the Cops and Robbers DLC it announced for Burnout Paradise last week, and very nice they look too.

Get six of them from IGN. We’re still waiting for specifics on how play in the pack’s going to work, and when it’s going to be released.

Gears of War 2 writer Josh Ortega told a panel at Comic Con this weekend that Epic has a ten-year plan for the Gears of War franchise. These are words we’re very glad to hear.

“You will not be disappointed in the next ten years,” Ortega said. “It’s a ten-year plan. Gears is long-term. The lancer is the new lightsaber.”

Yes please, Josh. So when’s the third one out, then? Thanks, IGN.

Edge has gone all “traffic-grabby” and posted its 7/10 Killzone 2 review.

Basically:

First impressions might be that everyone’s dying all of the time,‭ ‬but perseverance pays off.‭ ‬Thanks largely to its online play,‭ ‬Killzone‭ ‬2‭ ‬should find itself a fanbase no one can overlook.‭ ‬In singleplayer,‭ ‬it’s a testament to craft and imagination,‭ ‬if only because one is so immaculate while the other barely exists.‭ ‬It fights a great battle,‭ ‬it’s just a shame about the war.

Seriously, if it’s this easy, we may just give Halo Wars 3/10 and retire to the Bahamas.

According to a post on the official Call of Duty forums, Treyarch’s stomped a few more Nazi zombies out from the woodwork, and plans to build a little house for them. Or something.

“Nazi Zombies scare us too, which is why we’d like to give you a heads-up to stay tuned for official word regarding upcoming DLC. Yes, there will be a new wave of undead coming soon… Stay tuned for more details!” wrote Treyarch’s community manager.

Apparently, you can look forward to finding a “new zombie level” writhing among the other content included in the upcoming World at War DLC map pack.

World War II and zombies. Innovation, schminnovation. More of this, please.

Eidos and Gimme5games will no longer work together, according to this GI article.

“This is the best route for all parties involved,” commented Matt Spall, Gimmie5games GM.

“We understand we’re not the focus of Eidos’ business right now, but we passionately believe in our business and this way the team here are free to explore new and exciting business opportunities.”

Gimmie5games was part of the Morpheme Games Studio bought by Eidos in 2007.
Full thing through there.

According to this Joystiq report, stick ninja platformer N+ will release for DS and PSP in Europe this spring.

The PSP version will arrive in March, while the DS version will arrive in April.

This is probably great news if you’re a European with a desperate yearning to be a ninja on a bus, or something. Stay positive.

Activision’s announced a Wii casual label in the guise of Fun4All. We’d beg to differ, but that’s just us.

Pirates: Hunt for Blackbeard’s Booty, Monkey Mischief, Block Party, Pitfall: The Big Adventure, Little League World Series Baseball and World Championship Sports are all to release next week for British Wiis.

“The Fun4All range is being launched exclusively for the Wii platform and focuses upon the social element of gaming and bringing family and friends together,” said David Tyler, Activision UK MD.

More on CasualGaming.biz.

GamePro Media has shed two key execs – Daniel Orum (president and CEO) and Bob Huseby (senior VP, publisher) – despite the fact that GamePro magazine is “in a really good place,” according to SVP George Jones.

“We’re in a really good place now,” Jones told GameDaily.

“We measure the vibrancy of the magazine through the health of the publication on newsstands and we’re selling through at a good clip – not like the heydays of the ’90s but still really well on an issue-to-issue basis.”

He added that things picked up after the magazine and brand repositioned itself about three years ago.

“I see all the numbers and there’s no reason for us to worry right now,” he said.

GamePro’s circulation stands at just under two million.

No reason has been given for the departure of Orum and Huseby.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena demo is to release in “early March,” according to this TheGameReviews report.

The game itself’s releasing on April 7, says that story, although neither this or the demo date has been officially confirmed. It’s listed as “spring” by Atari at the moment.

These dates came from reps at Comic Con.

Full thing through there.

Braid and LittleBigPlanet look set to rule the Game Developer Choice Awards’ roost at GDC this year, with one or the other nominated for practically everything.

Hardly surprising. See the full list of nominees and categories here. GDC takes place in San Francisco from March 23-27.

The 360 demo of Tom Clancy’s HAWX will release on February 11, as confirmed here.

Sounds pretty swish, to be fair:

The demo is c o-op enabled for up to four players—jump in or jump outwith ease. Gain experience points to unlock three real, licensed planes in the demo: a F-16A Fighting Falcon, a SU-35 Super Flanker, and an AV-8B Harrier II.

It’s free. Do yourself a favour.

In the wind-up to God of War III’s reveal later this week, David Jaffe’s admitted to 1UP that the game in his head was bigger than the final product.

“I did have a sort of a bigger story that I personally was hoping to tell, and a bigger game that I was hoping to make,” he said in response to a question about his biggest disappointments with the original God of War.

“I think the fact that the realities of day-to-day production, and the financial realities of the game business, made it so it really wasn’t practical or realistic for me to stay on to sort of continue telling the story of God of War in the way that I wanted to, even though I’ve been very happy with the sequels we’ve done so far.”

Jaffe’s comments were made as part of 1UP’s cover story on God of War III, parts of which are to be unlocked here in the run-up to G-Day this Friday.

Well worth a read.

Speaking to GI, Xbox Europe boss Chris Lewis has allayed fears that original Microsoft IP will get bitten by general disaster in the macro-economy.

We’ll let Chris do the talking:

“I think you’ll see some [IP under threat], yes – but I also think, and I can only really speak with authority about our own games development work, be very confident we’ll continue to innovate, and focus on exciting IP for the future,” he said.

“Be very confident that we see that ultimately as central to our ability to continue to be successful, because I think if you batten down the hatches and simply work where you know you’re already strong, that doesn’t give you the future growth that we’re all hungry for.

“I think all the big, mature companies are thinking that way – because if we’re in the eye of the storm right now in terms of the economic situation, then clearly we’ll come out. We will come out of this situation, people will start spending money again, banks will start issuing credit in a slightly more flexible way and we’ll come out of it.

“The healthy companies will be the ones that have invested sufficiently during that phase that they’ve got exciting IP and innovative things happening for when that recovery starts to happen. I don’t know when that is… I’d love to know, but I tend to think very positively about the opportunities that it subsequently creates.”

You go, Mr Lewis. More through the link.

MCV’s claiming that the British games market is now bigger than Japan’s, as predicted.

Chart-Track said this week that UK games has grown by 26 percent this year, meaning unit sales are now higher in the UK than in Japan.

For the first five weeks of this year, the UK console market grew year-on-year by 37 per cent in units and by 21 per cent in terms of revenues.

Chart-Track boss Dorian Bloch said British revenues could beat Japan’s cash score for the first time this year.

“I haven’t got a crystal ball, but it’s very much a possibility that the UK will overtake Japan in terms of annual software revenue,” Bloch said.

“Japan is certainly in decline at the moment, mainly down to the fact that everyone seems to have already bought a DS or PSP, so hardware sales aren’t driving software sales – although DSi is flying off the shelves. The very sudden decline of PS2 is also a factor. The Japanese market is about twice the size of ours, so there is room for manoeuvre in terms of people who had a DS four years ago and want a new handheld.”