Monthly Archives: March 2009

Janco’s Mike Hickey’s prediction that a Blu-ray-less PS3 may be in the works suffered something of a blow today when Sony, unsurprisingly, said that there isn’t.

“That would pretty much destroy the PS3′s backbone,” Sony marketing manager Kim Nguyen told SAI.

“Our games were built on Blu-ray. Quote that: Blu-ray will always be part of PS3.”

Hickey also said he expected a PS3 price cut to be announced within days, in a note at the end of February.

Still waiting, Mike.

Nintendo just confirmed European Wii revamps of Pikmin 2 and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat for April 24 and “summer,” respectively.

Pikmin 2 includes a “Piklopedia” and “a new Treasure Hoard” over the first game. The only change over the original GameCube Pikmin 2 is the control method (thanks, Canton).

There’s a full press release after the break.

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If the entire gaming industry is a testosterone-packed game of economic dodge ball, Majesco’s the tiny circle of girls that stands in the middle of the field chatting, obviously above the barbaric spectacle surrounding them. Why? Because, in this Harsh Economic Climate, Majesco’s managed to somehow post a 75.8 percent jump in net revenues and a 54 percent income boost.

“Our success was driven by strong demand across our product line, specifically for our Cooking Mama titles and the newly released Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2009, which has become a hit with approximately 500,000 copies sold to date,” said CEO Jesse Sutton.

“We are well positioned to capitalize on the increasing demand for family friendly mass market games, the fastest growing segment of the industry, which in part is being driven by the success of Nintendo’s platforms.”

Fitness instructors and adorable Japanese women. Riveting.

Thanks, Kotaku.

According to a recently uncovered list of Japanese trademarks, Namco Bandai has laid claim to EXCALIBUR, ostensibly a videogame property about King Arthur’s loyal metallic wingman who – for obvious reasons (swords are cool) – ended up stealing the show.

We’d normally feel kind of sneaky reporting this, but we’re guessing Namco Bandai wanted everyone to know about its ownership of EXCALIBUR, or else the publisher wouldn’t have screamed right into our eyes with the title “EXCALIBUR.” Seriously guys, what’d we ever do to you?

Thanks, Joystiq.

Microsoft just posted up a demo for Call of Duty: World at War.

It’s been out for months, but who cares? You get to shoot people in the face for hours and hours, which is all we ever want to do with our time, to be honest.

Try it for no money. Thanks, Blerk.

Update – Nintendo’s confirmed that the white and silver DS Lites are to be phased out completely in Britain.

Nintendo has denied retail reports this morning that the solus DS Lite is to be delisted in the UK, but has admitted it is ramping up Lite bundling.

Why? Because DSi’s launching in April, right? Nope. It’s because people like buying bundles as presents.

“We will be increasing the availability of DS Lite bundles with software in the UK, however solus will still continue to be listed,” a rep told VG247.

“We have chosen to do this as we have found many consumers like the convenience of buying software and hardware together and also enjoy buying them as gifts.”

GoNintendo posted a rumour last night that the solus DS Lite is to be dropped in the UK, talk emphatically backed up by a VG247 retail source.

Both GoNintendo and our UK source also said that the white and silver DS Lites were to be removed from British retail completely. We’ve just mailed Nintendo on that now.

Ubisoft has told VG247 that, despite reportedly canning the two console versions of Massive’s World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, the firm is “brimming with great ideas” for RTS in general and believes in the genre wholeheartedly.

A Ubi rep told IGN in early March that, “World of Conflict: Soviet Assault will be released for the PC later this month. A console version of World in Conflict is not planned for release at this time.”

Explaining focus on Soviet Assault’s PC version, Ubi told us in a statement today that: “Our priority is to the work excellent work that Massive has done on World in Conflict: Soviet Assault for PC. The game was ready to go and of excellent quality and were are excited to make it available to World in Conflict fans.”

The publisher refused to confirm that status of the 360 and PS3 versions of Soviet Assault, however, saying, “For the console version, we have not announced anything official at this time.”

Here’s what we asked, and here’s what Ubi said:

VG247: Why won’t Ubi be publishing the 360 and PS3 versions of World in Conflict: Soviet Assault?

Ubisoft: Our priority is to the work excellent work that Massive has done on World in Conflict: Soviet Assault for PC. The game was ready to go and of excellent quality and were are excited to make it available to World in Conflict fans. For the console version, we have not announced anything official at this time.

Does Ubisoft see a future in “traditional” console RTS at all? Can we expect to see an EndWar sequel?

Ubisoft is committed to the RTS segment – it’s a great genre that is open for creativity and innovation. We have no official announcement to make at this time but rest assured that our teams are enthusiastic about RTS and brimming with great ideas.

Console RTS isn’t looking like it’s in the best place ever, what with the Soviet Assault versions being sidelined and Ensemble taking one to the head after the Halo Wars release.

Compare that to rocket success for Empire on PC and you probably don’t need a degree in astrophysics to see why things are working out the way they are.

World in Conflict: Soviet Assault ships for PC later this month.

As expected, UK retailers have reacted badly to news that Nintendo’s to raise the trade price of Wii in the UK, with one saying the proposed rise will leave no margin on the hardware at all.

“It’s very bad,” ShopTo.net’s Igor Cipolletta told GI, admitting: “If it’s true that they want to increase it by [at least] £18 then there is no margin for us at all.

“It’s very disappointing because we believed that after two years the Wii machine would get cheaper rather than more expensive – I’ve heard that this is the first time in history that the price has gone up for a machine after two years.”

Retailer Chips added that the rise is likely to have an adverse affect on sales, and that the increase will have to be passed onto consumers.

“It will have a negative effect on the sales,” said MD Don McCabe.

“I think we’ll still end up with shortages come Christmas again, but through the summer it’s going to have an effect.”

Nintendo said yesterday it’s to raise the trade price of Wii in the UK by as much as £20 thanks to a depreciated pound.

Tecmo’s told the US press that it’s to announce a new game on March 24, saying the “hot new title” will be “the greatest “_____” game, ever!”

The reveal’s taking place at the Metreon in San Francisco, and that’s GDC week, so expect something half decent.

Fingers crossed it’s not a bunch of melon-titted virtual cheerleaders rubbing their bikini bottoms on palm trees, eh?

Thanks, Kotaku.

The market’s to decide how DS Lite performs at retail against the DSi, right? Not quite.

A British retail source told VG247 today that Nintendo is now in the process of actively phasing out DS Lite, with the last solus machines hitting UK stores in the next few weeks.

“I can confirm this as true,” we were told, our source talking of the validity of this GoNintendo story, which said yesterday that solus DS Lites are to be completely discontinued in Britain, and white and silver consoles are to be phased out entirely.

In preparation for DSi’s launch, the following are going to be made the only DS Lite packages available in the UK, according to GoNintendo:

• Black DS with Brain Training (£119.99)
• Pink with Nintendogs Labrador
• Red with Big Brain Academy
• Blue with Brain Training
• Turquoise with Brain Training

“We received information today about the last of the solus DS Lites being delivered to stores in the coming weeks,” said our source, a retailer from a major UK chain.

“The list of bundles above is the same one we received today.”

Silver and white DS Lites are definitely out.

“The bit about the end of the Silver and White DS Lite is also true,” our chap continued.

“That came out a while ago, but was only recently confirmed. The White SKU is one of their most popular colours and we were at a loss as to why they’d finish it, until you remember that the DSi is appearing in white very soon.”

DSi launches in Europe on April 3 and the US on April 5. We’ll contact Nintendo for comment in a couple of hours.

Seven DS games have sold more than 10 million units, Nintendo said yesterday, with 83 titles now having sold more than 1 million copies.

The seven to break the 10 million mark are Nintendogs, New Super Mario Bros. Brain Age, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, Mario Kart DS, Brain Age 2, and Animal Crossing: Wild World.

Nintendo confirmed last night that DS has now shipped more than 100 million hardware units worldwide.

Thanks, Gamespot.

THQ’s latest Red Faction Guerrilla movie shows something you will probably want to play: see after the break.

If destructible environments and explosions are your bag, you may as well be doing it on Mars as anywhere else, and the Volition effort appears to have succeeded in spades.

Early indications are that this is very much one to watch.

It’s out this summer. New shots on Gamespot.

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The Japanese clearly aren’t bothered about lacklustre reviews and race rows: Resident Evil 5 sold almost 400,000 units in its first week on sales, mainly on PS3.

Westerners will be able to buy it tomorrow.

Don’t expect it to be as high next week, if the speed Yakuza’s dropped off is anything to go by.

Last week’s chart here. Thanks, Chartget.

01. [PS3] Resident Evil 5 (Capcom) 319,000 / NEW
02. [NDS] Seventh Dragon (SEGA) 80,000 / NEW
03. [360] Resident Evil 5 (Capcom) 79,000 / NEW
04. [PSP] Shin Sangoku Musou MULTI RAID (KOEI) 63,000 / 283,000
05. [PS3] Yakuza 3 (SEGA) 53,000 / 425,000
06. [NDS] Mario & Luigi RPG 3 (Nintendo) 44,000 / 351,000
07. [NDS] Aibou DS (Tecmo) 43,000 / NEW
08. [PS2] Super Robot Taisen Z Special Disc (Namco Bandai) 28,000 / NEW
09. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) (Capcom) 17,000 / 467,000
10. [NDS] Tennis no Oji-Sama: Doubles no Oji-Sama – Girls, Be Gracious! (Konami) 14,000 / NEW

Recently the music composer for Harry Potter and Red Alert 3, James Hannigan, sat down with the BBC and chatted about the challenges that come with composing music for games.

Hannigan says the main challenge is writing for scenes that he has not personally viewed, which is never the case with television or movies. Games, especially, do not follow a “conventional linear narrative” and the composition between third- and first-person offerings is a completely different thing all together.

In first-person games, he said, “You’re sending out the message that this is you, this is your eyes and ears,” and more prominent music could “conflict” with the immersion in a first-person game.

Third-person, however, is approached differently.

“You’re in control, but there’s also a sense that you’re part of an interactive audience,” he said. “So there is room to have more manipulative music that treats you at least partly as an audience”.

Hannigan also mentioned that he is thrilled that game music gets the younger generations interested in classical music.

Full thing over on BBC.

Capcom’s upcoming Monster Hunter G and Monster Hunter 3 will charge Wii users a fee for online multiplayer in the way of Hunting Tickets, if this post over on NeoGAF is to be believed.

Capcom has apparently released a pricing schedule that goes into effect after players’ 14-day online trial expires. If you want to continue playing, will have to purchase Hunting Tickets.

Three different offerings will be made available lasting 30, 60 and 90 days. Each will run you 800, 1500, and 2000 Wii Points, respectively.

No word yet on when to expect either game, but at least with a real hunting ticket/license you get to keep shooting stuff for an entire year.

We’ll check this with Capcom.

Massively’s got five new shots from Cryptic’s Star Trek Online, showing Klingons and a possible Klingon vessel.

Can’t get much cooler than that.

The MMO’s expected sometime next year.

Monolith’s released screens for F.E.A.R. 2′s Toy Soldier DLC, announced yesterday.

Shacknews has them.

Expect it to hit in April for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. We’re still not sure which one gets it first though.

According to the latest issue of Famitsu, not only is the Professor Layton and the Eternal Songstress movie scheduled for a 2010 release in Japan, but Level-5 will be releasing a new Layton DS trilogy to go along with it.

The first offering, Professor Layton and the Devil’s Flute, is set three years before the Curious Village took place.

Our hero is in a strange town besieged by a giant who goes bonkers whenever a mysterious flute is played. Layton’s trusty sidekick Luke is present, as well as a new female pal named Remi Altava.

“The series wrapped up its trilogy with Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel, so there was a bit of resistance to making yet another new title,” Level-5′s Akihiro Hino told Famitsu.

“However, we received word from a lot of gamers during development asking if this was really the end, and that was all the inspiration we needed to create a new trilogy, a ‘second season’ of Layton.”

“With this trilogy, we’ve got puzzles and tricks that go across all three games”, he added. “I think each individual game is going to take a lot more time to complete than before. We’re challenging ourselves here because we don’t want people to think it’s the same thing over again.”

Devil’s Flute is slated for a fall release in Japan, with the Eternal Songstress film continuing where Devil’s Flute leaves off.

Hows that for movie-game interaction?

More through the link.

AMD has pressed the 50 millionth ATI ‘Hollywood’ graphics processor for Wii, which makes it one of the most successful AMD game console chips to date.

AMD’s been providing Nintendo with graphics solutions for 10 years, including the GameCube era.

“Nintendo values its ongoing relationship with AMD. AMD’s graphics technology expertise as displayed in the ATI ‘Hollywood’ chip is a great part of the momentum of Wi,” said Nintendo’s Genyo Takeda.

“Our combined efforts help deliver entertaining experiences to create many smiling faces in living rooms around the world.”

Full press release through the break.

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UK PS boss Ray Maguire has told GI that PSP install base has grown to 50 million globally, and while the system had been under-supported in the past, that is all about to change.

“It was slightly under-supported, mainly because a lot of the energy was going into stuff we’re doing for PlayStation 3. There was an added complication in that the UMD model wasn’t brilliant for third parties, either,” he said.

“But I think as the installed base has grown – we’re now at 50 million globally – the PSP has become one of the best-selling formats ever, and I think people are seeing that they need to get back into it. I think we had a bit of a barren year last year, and this year we seem to have a bumper crop.”

When asked if the change from 2000 to 3000 will prompt new sales, he stated that people would buy the product because of the overall package and content instead of hardware revamps.

“I think the hardware specs are probably the lower part of the decision-making process now. The hardware does what it says, so that’s great, but people don’t buy hardware for hardware, they buy it to get to content”, he said.

“The content was where we were weak last year, but it’s where we’re strong this year, and the services around it are getting better as well.”

Full interview here.