Monthly Archives: March 2009

Pong creator Nolan Bushnell said at a BAFTA talk last night that online gaming was “not cool,” claiming that face-to-face interaction was the future of games.

“Social is buying someone a drink,” he said. “Sitting in a dark room in your underpants talking to thousands of people might seem social, but it’s not cool. The public space is always going to be here.”

Bushnell added that the main reason a Martini is more expensive in a bar than making one at home is because “the bar has people around”.

The pioneer’s current project is uWink, an “entertainment dining experience” where people are able to play games via interactive video terminals at tables.

Thanks, EG.

Nelson’s confirmed the Guitar Hero: Metallica demo as being available for download.

Blurb:

Get ready to thrash with Metallica and other rocking bands. Unleash your inner metal God and showcase your skill on guitar, drums, vocals and bass. Featuring the music of Metallica, Queen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters, Motörhead and more.

At least they spelt Lynyrd Skynyrd correctly this time.

More hardware hardman talk this morning from SCEA’s Peter Dille, this time claiming PS3′s the only machine on the market with the legs to run a ten-year lifespan, and will be the “centerpiece of your entertainment for the next 10 years.” You tell ‘em, Peter.

“We also have to work hard to gain our consumers’ trust and make them comfortable that when they buy a PS3, it’s going to stand the test of time,” the exec told GameDaily.

“The fact of the matter is we’re the only console manufacturer that’s ever launched a product that’s had a 10-year life-cycle. And we’ve done that now not once, but twice.

“One of the great things about the PS3 is that if you buy it today you can be confident it’s going to be the centerpiece of your entertainment for the next 10 years. Economically, that’s a great value.”

More shouting through the link.

There’s a video up on Codemaster’s site of Carmen Electra doing voiceover for a character in Leisure Suit Larry Box Office Bust. This will allow you to hear her say the words “big” and “pants”.

Electra plays the part of Gingivitis, a porn star looking to get into mainstream movies.

The game’s out next week for PC, 360 and PS3.

German retailer Galeria Kaufhof has pulled violent games and DVDs from its shelves in the wake of a recent school shooting that left 15 dead.

The store will no longer stock films or games sold with an 18-plus rating at all.

“I think (Kaufhof’s decision) is a complete overreaction … it borders on impulsive hysteria,” said Stephan Reichart, boss of German game developer association, GAME.

“It would be sufficient if retailers made sure their cashiers don’t sell this material to young people.”

There have been fresh calls to ban violent games following the killings. The shooter was known to have played Far Cry 2 and Counter-Strike the night before committing his crimes.

More on Reuters.

Rockstar announced last night that the 360 version of its Midnight Club South Central DLC has been delayed.

Apparently the add-on has been pushed back “slightly” due to “an unforeseen bug in the title update”.

The PSN version went up yesterday as planned.

Thanks, Kotaku.

SCEA VP Peter Dille reckons publishers are jumping up and down about the year ahead for PlayStation 3.

“I would venture to say that certainly all the retail partners I met with and all the publishing partners were really fired up about the year ahead for PS3,” said Dille, speaking to GameDaily.

“If you look at a game like Killzone 2, it comes in at 40 gigs on a Blu-ray disc – you can’t do that on the competition’s platform.

“Last year, Metal Gear Solid 4 was a great proof point at close to 50 gigs. We’re just starting to scratch the surface on PS3 development, and the development community has come nowhere close to tapping out what the PS3 can do,” he added.

There’s three pages of it through there.

EA’s released the Red Alert 3 PS3 demo, as confirmed on the PS Blog.

The teaser contains two campaign missions and a tutorial.

Get full details through the link.

Hot shit. Edge has spat straight into Gamasutra’s face with the speed of its NPD analysis this month. Find its just-published take on last-night’s figures here.

Let’s see. The figures were in our inbox at 10.29pm GMT last night, and Edge now has a four-page feature, coloured graphs included, at 8.00am GMT. That probably equates to author Kris Graft crying into his cornflakes.

But still. You won, Edge. You really shoved it up Gama’s ass, right? Poor old Matt Mathews won’t know what the hell happened.

Get reading!

Yet another big week for PlayStation hardware in Japan, although the joint PSP-PS3 fgiure isn’t as impressive as last week.

Wii’s up a bit, though. And 360′s down a lot. Keep the edge of your seat warm for next week’s data.

• PSP – 43,463
• PS3 – 28,014
• DSi – 27,564
• Wii – 17,941
• DS Lite – 11,571
• Xbox 360 – 8,378
• PS2 – 4,844

Blizzard’s launched the new-look Battle.net. Actually, it launched last night, but we were asleep. We should take more drugs.

“Beginning with World of Warcraft, the new Battle.net account grants access to Blizzard Entertainment games, websites, and online services – all with a single e-mail address and password,” says the service’s blurb.

The service’s revamp paves the way for the launch of StarCraft II, which Blizzard has always said would be a tandem affair to Battle.net’s facelift.

What to Sam Hell are you doing reading this? Get registering.

Nintendo’s post-NPD press release last night focussed on the fact Wii Play has now shipped more than 10 million units in the US. That’s quite a feat.

“Wii Play mini-games are fun and they get people playing together,” said NoA marketing boss Cammie Dunaway.

“Even if you believe people are buying Wii Play solely for the controller, that indicates that there are now more than 10 million people who have an extra Wii Remote controller in their homes.

“When added to the 12.7 million Wii Remote controllers that have sold separately, this reinforces the growing ‘social gaming’ trend we have been seeing where friends and family use their Wii games as a social hub – both in person and online.”

Wii hardware sales were up 74 percent over February 2008, selling nearly 753,000 units in the US last month.

Lifetime US Wii sales are close to 19 million.

Full thing after the break.

More »

While we still don’t know exactly how many copies of GTA: The Lost and Damned were downloaded last month, Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg said last night that the figure was more than that achieved by Killzone 2 at retail – 323,000.

The exec told Gamasutra the DLC was “the most successful game add-on content we’ve ever launched,” adding, “If that content was sold at retail, it would be one of the best-sellers across all platforms. It would have outsold Killzone 2″.

It’s worth noting that TLAD launched on February 17, while Killzone 2 released on February 27.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Aaron “Green Machine” Greenberg has claimed that Sony’s PlayStation 3 business is “hemorrhaging at retail,” based on a 2 percent year-on-year drop in hardware sales, announced by NPD last night.

“You can’t underestimate that we’re half the price of the PS3 at a time when consumers were looking for great value,” he told Gamasutra.

“The PS3 was down in February two percent even with the launch of Killzone 2 — that’s months of year-over-year declines. Xbox continues to head north while the PS3 is heading south. We’re gaining share.”

“But what we hear from our partners is that it’s not just PS3, it’s also PS2 down 62 percent year over year,” he continued. “With that business declining, and with the PS3 business declining, it’s been described to me as hemorrhaging at retail right now, and it just keeps getting worse.

“What we’re finding in our research is that a large portion of the volume we’re driving with Xbox 360 purchasers is actually PS2 owners choosing Xbox for the next generation. We’re switching people from the PlayStation brand over to the Xbox brand.”

PlayStation 3 sold 276,000 units in the US last month, the largest percentage increase of any hardware platform month-on-month.

Get the full figures here.

EA announced today that NCAA Football 10 will be available on July 14 for PS2, PS3, PSP and Xbox 360.

Each week leading up to launch, the official website will host the latest features, videos, screenshots, and other stuff in the countdown to the game’ cover athletes.

A different player will be featured on the packaging of each platform.

Press release below.

More »

Zeno Clash is coming to Steam, and if you pre-order it’ll only cost you $10 instead of $20.

That’s half off.

The upcoming ACE FPS is expected in April.

Youll get to play as Ghat, who is forced into a “desperate journey past the forbidden desert and to the end of the world”.

Hit the link for more.

The City of Heroes mission architect is now in open beta.

Players will be able to control “environments, mission objectives, and enemies, to written fiction and character dialogue,” and deliver mission arcs with multiple stages.

You can create your own adventures with up to five chapters or missions, and each holds up to a maximum of 25 achievable goals.

Thanks, RPS.

John Garvin of Sony Bend has posted nine different “must do’s” for players to, well, do when playing Resistance Retribution on PSP.

If you have not played the game, don’t take a peek after the break or hit this link.

It’ll pretty much spoil things for you.

More »

The FIFA 09 Ultimate Team update’s available now on Live and PSN.

The pack lets players choose the most talented players in the world, “develop them into a dream team” and then go against others online.

Press release is posted below, and contains loads more information.

More »

Rising Star’s announced European release plans for its games, including RPG Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga: it’s expected in November for Wii.

It’s being speculated that the North American release will be picked up by Atlus or XSEED/Marvelous.

Besides Eldar Saga, here are the other upcoming Rising Star titles:

• Steal Princess (DS, May 22)
• Valhalla Knights 2 (PSP, May 29)
• Harvest Fishing (DS, June )
• Rygar: The Battle of Argus (Wii, June)
• Animal Kororo (DS, July)
• My World My Way (DS, September)
• Mah-jongg (DS, September)
• Angel Cat Sugar (DS/PC, October)
• Luminous Arc 2 (DS, October)
• Avalon Code (DS, October)

Thanks, Siliconera.