Monthly Archives: February 2009

Update: And here we are.

We’ve just been told that Just Cause 2 will launch in the third quarter for PC, PS3 and 360.

The free-roaming action titles is currently on a press tour.

Avalanche, the original’s developer, announced the sequel in January last year, claiming it’d hit in 2008. It didn’t, obviously.

The second game again features Rico Rodriquez as the protagonist, following the anti-hero on a quest to cause an awful lot of damage.

Watch for an official announcement soon. We’ve contacted Eidos for comment.

Following rumour of Splatterhouse developer BottleRocket going bust at the weekend, Gamasutra’s confirmed the truth of it.

“Yes, we have decided to part ways with BottleRocket Entertainment,” said a Namco rep, “but we are committed to bringing Splatterhouse to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this year.

“At this time, we are not ready to discuss specific development details about the game, and wish BottleRocket the best of luck in their future endeavors.”

A BottleRocket staffer was less convivial.

“Last Friday, Namco showed up with a U-Haul truck, took all their assets (dev kits, etc.) and informed management that the title was being pulled from Bottlerocket,” a studio rep told the site.

Splatterhouse is believed to now have been moved to the Afro Samurai team. There’s no word as yet as to why any of this has happened.

EEDAR’s put out its NPD predictions, reckoning Wii sold a staggering 740,000 units at US retail last month.

The figure’s in stark contrast to Michael Pachter’s estimate, also released today. The Wedbush Morgan analyst said he thought 550,000 Wiis were sold in January.

EEDAR’s plumped for 210,000 and 300,000 units of PS3 and 360 respectively, also a way off Pachter’s guess at 225,000 and 275,000.

Pachter reckoned January console sales would be up 35 percent: EEDAR’s gone for 58 percent.

We’ll know who’s right on Thursday.

EA’s announced detailed for the US qualifiers of the FIFA Interactive World Cup, the final winner of which will take place in a regional final in New York for the chance to go on to the actual final. Finally.

The West Regional will take place on March 7 in Santa Monica, and the East Regional is scheduled for March 21 in Baltimore.

Entrants in each Regional Final will be competing for a prize package valued at $2,000 and three berths into the National Final in New York.

Win the PS3-only event and you’re $20,000 richer.

Details after the break.

More »

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has won the Writers Guild of America award for videogame writing.

Also nominated for the gong were Red Alert 3, Fallout 3 and Tomb Raider: Underworld.

Get full details here.

Jeepers. Wii Fit’s managed to make pit a fourth consecutive week at the top of the UK chart, yet againbeating off FIFA and World at War.

Chart for week ending February 7 below. Full thing here. Last week’s data here.

1. Wii Fit
2. FIFA 09
3. Call of Duty: World at War
4. Mystery Case Files: Millionheir
5. Professor Layton and the Curious Village
6. Mario Kart Wii
7. Wii Play
8. Skate 2
9. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
10. Guitar Hero: World Tour

Ascaron’s released a new video of RPG Sacred 2, showing “in-game action from the Xbox 360 version of the game, featuring characters such as the High Elf and Temple Guardian in combat within the world of Ancaria.”

It’s lots of fighting and menus, essentially, and all looks very Titan Questy. We still mourn, you know.

After the break.

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Capcom has just officially announced Dead Rising 2 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Dead Rising 2 is set several years after the infamous zombie invasion of Willamette. Unfortunately, the zombie virus was not contained at the conclusion of Dead Rising, spreading unchecked throughout the United States and Dead Rising 2 depicts a country where zombie outbreaks continue to strike.

Canadian developer Blue Castle is working on the game and will be assisted by members of the original Dead Rising development team.

No release details were forthcoming, but Capcom has put out five incredibly good looking screenshots that you can see along with the full release after the break.

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A bunch of people that lost their jobs in the Activision Blizzard merger earlier this year have teamed up to launch Talented-People.org, a self-promotion site.

It’s basically a ton of CVs, so if you’re in the market for a new, um, CTO, look no further.

Good luck, chaps.

Velvet Assassin will release for European 360s this spring, Southpeak’s confirmed.

The game, based on the life of WWII spy Violette Summer, features “intense stealth-action gameplay with a startling real-time lighting system and surreal visuals,” according to a just-issued press release.

Sounds fantabulous.

The European Parliament is about to make an announcement on guidelines concerning children and “harmful” games.

From its site:

Video game safety: The Internal Market Committee will set out a series of recommendations to improve the protection of children from potentially harmful video games on Wednesday.

The institution gave its support to PEGI in January.

Thanks, GamePolitics.

The new Mystic Silver, Pearl White and Radiant Red PSPs, due for release in the UK in the coming months, have had some lovely photos taken of them by SCEE.

After the break. They’re double awesome. Release details here.

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Both Dissidia Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 will release in the US on August 31, Square’s announced.

Dissidia, the PSP action game, will receive its European date in the coming weeks.

No word on DS’s Kingdom Hearts 358/2 for Europe as yet.

Thanks, FinalFantasySeries.net.

Watch Impress just posted up a heap of Blue Dragon Plus screens, including one of an enormous blue bull. No shit.

The DS RPG is releasing in Europe thanks to Ignition, and is apparently out in March. It’s to include 30 hours of single-play stuff, we’re promised.

Get the lot through the link.

Eidos just confirmed that tomorrow’s planned Tomb Raider Underworld DLC has been delayed.

“An unexpected technical issue means that Beneath the Ashes will not be available to download on 10th February as planned,” said a spokesperson.

“We apologize for this delay and we are doing everything we can to bring you this exciting new content for Tomb Raider: Underworld as soon as possible.”

There’s nothing else yet. More soon, hopefully.

SCEE’s finally put a date on SOCOM: Confrontation for non-US places, as detailed in this Euro PS boards post.

“The officially confirmed release dates are 13th March (UK), 18th March (EU) and 19th March (PSN),” said the game’s European producer.

We were supposed to get this last month. Better late than never.

Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter just predicted that 360 beat PS3 in America in January, and that Wii still managed to completely outstrip the pair of them.

“We estimate sell-through of 550,000 Wii, 275,000 Xbox 360 and 225,000 PS3 consoles (a 35% year-over-year unit increase in consoles),” he said in a note.

“Our console sell-through forecasts reflect our belief that supplies for Wii hardware were up year-over-year.”

Pachter’s forecasting sales of $690 million, up 12 percent compared to last year’s $615 million.

January’s NPD releases this Thursday.

UK TV outfit Xleague‘s announced today that its being reimagined as a standalone content provider.

Xleague was formerly part of the Portland Group, and won a GMA last year for its now defunct British cable show, Games Night.

“Gaming as an entertainment medium is more accessible, more visual, and more interconnected than ever before,” said boss Ray Mia.

“Mainstream channels have identified a surging consumer demand for high quality games-related content, and Xleague.TV has unrivalled experience in delivering compelling viewing in this extremely specialist arena.”

Press release after the break.

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Sony’s just confirmed that more than 1 million PS3s have been sold in Germany.

In addition, the company said that PS2′s still selling very strongly in the country, with sales of 500,000 in the last year meaning the machine’s now sold 5.8 million German units.

SingStar and Buzz! were singled out as key titles for PS2.

More on Eurogamer.de.

As of March 3, Microsoft Japan will stop servicing original Xboxes, including machines that are under warranty, according to this post on the Japanese Xbox site.

If you’ve got a broken Xbox that’s still under warranty, however, Microsoft will upgrade you to a 360 for free.

That’s service. Thanks, Kotaku.