Monthly Archives: February 2009

EA’s right to focus heavily on Wii to bring itself through its financial crisis, Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter has told VG247, and that success in the Wii market is nothing short of pivotal to the publisher’s survival.

“I think it is essential to address the growing Wii installed base,” the analyst said today.

“It is important to keep in mind that EA has always had mass-market brands (mostly sports and Harry Potter); if these can’t work on the Wii, there is something wrong with the way they are marketed.

“I think that once the company figures out how to address the Wii audience, it will succeed.”

EA said yesterday it’s to shift a heavy focus onto Wii, and intends to even rival Nintendo on its own platform.

CEO John Riccitiello made the remark in the wake of heavy third quarter losses, announced yesterday.

Stardock’s to invest $900,000 in expanding it’s Michigan Studio, Gamasutra reports.

The expansion will allow the firm to start work on a new PC game.

The move will create 53 jobs at the developer and publisher, whose shipped games include the Galactic Civilizations series and Sins of a Solar Empire.

The company was founded in 1991 and currently employs over 60 workers.

Full thing through the link.

Apparently, Microsoft doesn’t take kindly to Xbox 360 users logging into Xbox Live in Columbia. Those who do get their console warranty voided.

Since XBL is not official in Columbia, users that log in to the US version aren’t allowed to get repairs performed by tech support.

Engadget has more info on their site and Gamers.co have a recording of a call made to the support center. You’ll need fluent Spanish to get the most from it.

You can thank Babel Fish for the lovely translation.

Joystiq is rumouring that between 60 and 130 people have been laid off at Mythic.

Some of redundancies are apparently from WAR development staff, supposedly including senior designers.

Mark Jacobs, however, made a statement on the official Warhammer Online site claiming that staffing numbers are attributed to consumer need and progress with game design.

“With respect to customer service, quality assurance and play testing, prior to the launch of WAR, we hired additional people to deal with the rush of demand associated with an MMO launch,” he said.

“Since the launch last year, the demand for customer service has gone down as players become more familiar with the game. Obviously, demand for a large QA and play-testing staff also falls after launch. As a result, we saw a staff reduction which is in line with the company-wide initiative.”

We’ve contacted Mark for a further statement.

Free Radical is to be renamed Crytek UK, it’s now been confirmed.

Crytek issued a statement today finally admitting it’s bought the developer.

“Free Radical Design is a great fit to Crytek and its culture, given that Free Radical has a proven track record on delivering high quality games,” said Crytek boss Avni Yerli.

“The combination of this team, the Crytek network and our CryENGINE technology will be a foundation for outstanding gaming experiences and a magnet for the best talent in the UK.”

Free Radical as was will form Crytek’s fifth devlopment facility.

Koch’s delayed Sacred 2, Eurogamer reports.

The RPG was supposed to hit in March, but will now appear in the second quarter.

It’s the 360 and PS3 versions taking the hit. They were originally planned to release alongside the PC SKU last November.

No dice. More through the link.

GTA: Chinatown Wars will be playable at New York’s Comic Con this weekend, according to this Kotaku story.

The DS game will be found at Rockstar’s booth, #1563.

We suspect this may be a popular exhibit, so if you’re going to bother trying to get close to it take a bat, or something.

Despite a PS3 port of Left 4 Dead being listed for pre-order over on HMV, Valve has dismissed talk of the zombie shooter hitting the console.

When asked about the listing, a laughing Valve rep told CVG: “Fantastic. I can’t wait to see it.”

A PS3 version is also listed on Play.com. HMV lists the game as a June 5 release, with EA as the publisher.

So instead of dishing out the cash for pre-order goodness, PS3 users should just keep their fingers crossed for the time being.

Looks like the usual suspects rounded out the top five Live titles this week.  Whatever would we do if Call of Duty or Halo missed the list?  Check to make sure the earth was still rotating, most likely.

1. CoD: World at War
2. Halo 3
3. Call of Duty 4
4. Gears of War 2
5. Left 4 Dead
6. GTA IV
7. Fallout 3
8. FIFA 09
9. Guitar Hero World Tour
10. Madden NFL 09

Top Arcade Titles (purchased)

1. The Maw
2. Castle Crashers
3. Worms
4. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
5. UNO
6. A Kingdom for Keflings
7. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
8. Braid
9. Banjo-Kazooie
10. Bomberman Live

Naughty Dog boss Evan Wells said today that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has the sort of budget most developers only dream of.

The first Uncharted cost $20 million. Wells isn’t about to be short-changed for the sequel, apparently.

“We are spending the same amount,” he told Joystiq when asked if the game’s cost would be less than the original adventure.

“You always want to be able to just do more. Definitely it is a leg up to start with that technological foundation, but what you try to do with it is just that much more.

“Not only is the spectacle part of things that we are doing bigger, in terms of the kind of enemies and encounters that Drake is going to find himself in, but we are also trying to deliver a richer narrative experience as well.

“So both sides come at a cost.”

Seemingly so. Wells’ comments come on the heels of the new screens released today, showing the money’s being well spent.

Full thing through the link.

The PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA) confirmed this morning that Capcom and The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University have been added to the non-profit’s board of directors.

The PCGA is “dedicated to driving the worldwide growth of PC gaming”.

The Guildhall has a respected game education program in the US: Capcom might just help the PCGA save the PC industry from those pesky console games.

More information on this after the jump.

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Deadline’s confirmed that Faith and a .45 development has come to a screeching halt.

Cessation of work on the game was rumored last week.

Blame it on the upcoming Watchmen: The End is Nigh, slated for a March 6 release along with the film, according to developer boss CEO Chris Mottes.

“During the past year our team has been fully occupied with the development of Watchmen: The End is Nigh,” he said.

“We are proud to work on such a high quality online product and excited by how well it has been received by the press already,” said Mottes.

Mottes said that while development of the Great Depression era game was indeed stalled, work does continue on a ”negotiation level”.

Full thing on Eurogamer.

Traveller’s Tales announced Lego Battles for DS today.

The game will feature three Lego toy themes, and allow you to build your own fortresses and wage battle against other teams across six storylines and over 70 different levels.

This means that your Lego pirates can battle wizards and aliens, and your dragons can knock about with ninjas while your pirate ships can accost a spacecraft. Really.

Multiplay will be a multi-card affair.

Still waiting for Lego Rock Band, obviously.

Press release after the jump.

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Ubi’s just confirmed Tom Clancy’s HAWX for a March 6 release in Europe.

The flight combat title was previously listed for March.

PC, PS3 and 360 all get a version.

HAWX is visually stunning, featuring lots of bleeping and missile avoidance. You may or may not love it.

Koei’s announced record earnings, proving it’s not all bad in Japan. Just not especially good, is all.

For the nine months ending December 31, Koei sales rose ¥163 million compared to the previous year, up up to ¥20.1 billion total.

Profit lifted ¥968 million to ¥4.5 billion.

PSP game Musou OROCHI The Devil King’s Second Coming, among others, was cited as the reason for the cash avalanche.

The announcement is one of Koei’s last as a standalone company: it merges with Tecmo on April 1.

A live event titled Night of Murder is to run in Warhammer Online from February 6-15.

The shindig is just one of many scheduled for the MMO.

Hopefully it will entice more players to return to the game, considering subscriber numbers have dropped from 750,000 to 300,000 since October 2008.

Full details are posted in the press release below.

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amBX has finalized its Tools & Middleware License agreement for PS3, the firm announced today, paving the way for the lighty, rumbly games tech to make its way to the console.

“This is a major milestone in the development of amBX as a ubiquitous standard for entertainment sensory experiences,” said amBX CMO Jo Cooke.

“amBX has already proved incredibly popular and successful within the PC games, music, movies and apps markets and the Tools & Middleware License agreement with SCEI will allow us to bring amazing light, rumble, sound and air movement experiences to game users.”

The ambient technology’s been limited to PC thus far.

If you’re in San Francisco next month, the amBX engineering team will be doing free, on-stand developer tutorials at GDC, focusing on best practice techniques to create ambient experiences for games. The space around the booth will also be amBX-enabled.

The amBX booth number is 5519 in the North Hall Moscone Center.

Press release after the break.

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Sony’s released some proper screens for upcoming PS3 exclusive Uncharted 2: Among Theives.

These are pretty nifty looking shots, they look like they were pulled from cutscenes, but still… Very nice.

Game Infowire has 21 of them. Go nuts.

Come March, Europe will geta taste of Southpeak’s Mushroom Men when they finally land on DS and Wii.

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars is a 3D platformer in its Wii incarnation, while Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi is a side-scrolling action prequel to the former for DS.

The US got them in December of last year. They were suppose to come a month earlier to Europe, but thanks to Southpeak’s purchase of  Gamecock in 2008, the game was pushed a bit further ahead into February 2009, and now March.

Rockstar’s just confirmed a sequel to 2004 western Red Dead Revolver, to release this year.

Red Dead Redemption follows the story of former outlaw John Marston and takes place at the turn of the 20th Century.

Apparently, the game occupies time when “lawless and chaotic badlands began to give way to the expanding reach of government and the spread of the Industrial Age.”

More info and shots on Kotaku.

Update: Press release here.