Monthly Archives: March 2009

Microsoft’s Neil Thompson is unsure whether British 360 owners will ever get the Netflix movie download service.

“Netflix is a great deal in the US, and we’re looking at what we might want to do here in the future,” said the Xbox UK bossman.

“But we think the content we’re offering is broad-ranging and pretty deep. We have to evolve the live service in different territories at different speeds, depending on what we’re able to achieve.”

Microsoft announced last week that 30 new Universal movies will soon be heading to the current UK service, and while this would bring the total amount of films up to 330, Americans currently have over 10,000 to choose from.

So when will the UK get the same benefits of a Netflix-style service? Thompson is unsure, because at this time they are concentrating on the current content being provided.

“I don’t know yet where we’re going to take the services we’ve got,” Thompson said. “We’re concentrating on delivering the services we’ve got and bolstering the content we’ve got.

“There will be evolutions of that service, absolutely, but I’m not going to give you any timelines or specifics.”

Full thing over on Eurogamer.

Frank O’Connor has hinted to USA Today that there may be more of Master Chief in Halo’s future.

Speaking mainly about Halo 3: ODST being more than just an add-on, Frank let slip something about the hero of the Halo saga.

“I doubt we have seen the last of Master Chief,” he said.

Going back to ODST, he went continued:

“It’s a lot of game. You play the game through the point of view of an ODST. They are dropped into combat from orbit. They have a rivalry with the Spartans that is well known to the fans of the fiction. We finally let you into their boots as it were. …It’s kind of a detective story in a way. But it is much more action-packed than that.”

More through the link.

SNK and Ignition just confirmed that The King of Fighters XII will release this July for both 360 and PS3.

The game was rumoured as a summer launch for PS3 this morning.

“Our development slogan for KOFXII is ‘KOF Re-Birth’ and we’ve aimed to create an entirely new King of Fighters game. To make this a truly unique fighting game, we’ve revolutionized the graphics by creating state of the art visuals – and made no compromises in that process whatsoever,” said SNK Playmore boss, Masaaki Kukino.

The handdrawn fighter is nothing short of beautiful. This is very good news.

Press release after the drop.

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Get ready for loads of new music for Guitar Hero: World Tour this month, with track packs from Queen, Jimi Hendrix, and various European bands getting ready for lift off.

March 5 – European Track Pack 3

• Les Rita Mitsoukos – C’est Comme Ca (France)
• The Rasmus – IN the Shadows (Finland)
• Vanilla Sky – Break it Out (Italy)

March 19 – European Track Pack 4; Jimi Hendrix

• Die Toten Hosen – Hier Kommat Alex (Germany) (Encore from GHIII)
• M-Clan – Carolina (Spain)
• Within Temptation – What Have You Done (Netherlands)

• Jimi Hendrix Track Pack 2 consists of Freedom, Angel, and Foxy Lady (live from Woodstock).
• On this day, Wii users will be able to download the first Hendrix track pack as individual songs for 200 points. The songs If 6 was 9, Little Wing, and Fire are already available for PS3 and Xbox 360 owners.

March 26 – Queen Track Pack

• C-lebrity (2008, Paul Rodgers)
• Fat Bottomed Girls
• We are the Champions

• The James Bond theme song will also be released.

Each track pack will cost you 440 MS Points, or $5.49 on PSN.

All songs, except for the ones featured in the second Hendrix pack, will be available individually for 160 MS points and $1.99 on PSN, and 200 points on Wii.

Did your heart skip a beat when you saw the words “Kojima” and “Ueda” on the GDC speaker list? Did you little willy twitch at the thought of Metal Gear and Trico reveals? Not so fast, Ringo. Put your pants back on.

Sources assure VG247 that neither appearance will be a showy affair. If you were hoping for megatons from the pair, you’ve picked the wrong show.

Kojima’s going to be specifically talking about development issues, apparently, and Ueda – as described on the GDC site – is just going to be chewing the fat with buddy SUDA51 on the subject of eastern and western dev on a panel. There’ll be no major bombshell from either star.

No Metal Gear 5 or Trico at GDC, right? Good.

Capcom dev legend Keiji Inafune has said that developing games for Xbox was a primary factor in Capcom seeing success outside Japan.

“I think I can only get away with saying this now, but I really thought that the using the Xbox was only way to break into overseas markets, and I took that hypothesis all the way,” he said, talking in an interview on the Capcom site.

“In the end, I am very happy that I did so.”

Capcom was an early supporter of both the original Xbox and 360, with the likes of Steel Battalion and Dead Rising.

There’s a heap of stuff in that interview. Well worth a read.

You can watch the first ten minutes of play from the retail version of Tom Clancy’s HAWX after the break.

The Ubi flight war shooter releases this Friday for PC, PS3 and 360. The movie’s shot from the 360 version.

It’s all about supporting the Ghosts and press A a lot, from our brief experience of it. You get XP from killing things, as well.

Dandy. Look and see.

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EA gave attendees at Wondercon 2009 a look at Dante’s Inferno last week, and put in a bit of a backstory on the muscly fella.

While not exactly like the epic poem, Dante does go to Hell looking for Beatrice — but that’s where most of the similarities end.

The game starts with Dante killing Death, finding his wife murdered and being taken to Hell by Lucifer, breaks down the gates, and starts his journey through the nine circles taking down any denzien that crosses his path.

The game is currently being developed by folks who had hands in God of War II, Half-Life 2, Metroid Prime, and Dead Space.

Loads more information is over on Destructoid, where there’s talk about Dante’s boat ride across the river Styx.

Game’s sounding better and better all the time.

Capcom has released an online Street Fighter IV manual.

The PDF is printable, full of cool SFIV artwork, character biographies, and a training guide.

Best of all — it’s free.

Warner Music wants more money from Harmonix and MTV games to license songs for Rock Band.

Again.

Many of you may recall last year when Activision’s Bobby Kotick and Warner Music were having row over how much money Warner should receive for licensing fees. Kotick felt they were getting plenty. Warner did not.

Now the music giant is setting MTV in its sights. MTV feels, like Kotick, that Warner is getting plenty, and is refusing to cave into Warner’s demands.

Until the stalemate ends, don’t expect any Warner-owned music from Rock Band anytime soon.

More on Kotaku

Xbox.com no longer shows stars next to Avatars, instead showing a crown and “Gold Member”. Assuming you’re a gold member, obviosly.

Silver members have an ad next to their GamerTags saying, “Get Gold Today!” Subtle.

Ditch the stars, Microsoft. No one cares.

Thanks, Evil Avatar.

CVG posted up a gallery of editor Gavin Ogden unboxing a DSi. That’s it, really.

See as Gavin sets the clock. Look at the size of the box. Do all this and more through the link.

DSi launches in Europe at the beginning of April.

Criterion’s confirmed the Toy Cars Pack for Burnout Paradise will release this Thursday.

The release is going to be announced via Twitter, apparently, as are all things in the world since last week, so keep an eye out.

Or we’ll do it for you, if you like.

Thanks, Syrok.

The western Ninja Blade demo’s to be released on March 9, but Microsoft let us have it yesterday, being the benevolent soul that it is. Find a grab of the first 11 minutes after the break, including half of a whopping boss battle. Be warned: we’re quite bad at it.

The From Software actioner bears more than a passing resemblance to Ninja Gaiden, but doesn’t appear to suffer from the same camera horrors, which is nice. And it looks amazing, to be fair.

There’s lots of QTE in there, though, as you’ll know if you had a waz on the Japanese demo at the end of last year.

Take a look. It’s out in Europe on April 3.

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Acclaim boss Dave Perry’s called on SCEA’s John Koller to publicly deny Sony’s upcoming, unannounced PSP revamp won’t include UMD support.

“John Koller is publically questioning my post about PSP 2,” Perry said on his Twitter.

“So I confirmed with Top PSP 2 developers. John, state that PSP 2 WILL have UMD.”

It won’t have UMD, obviously. Sony just doesn’t want to talk about anything to do with it yet.

“PSP2″ isn’t a successor at all, more a “reimagining” of the original design. It’s known to have a slide screen and is expected to be announced at E3.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

South Australian attorney general Michael “Head/Sand” Atkinson is refusing to allow a public debate on the launch of an 18+ rating for games in Australia by apparently failing to make amendments to a paper on the matter.

Atkinson said he was to make “minor” changes to the paper four months ago. He hasn’t. Until he does, no dice.

“I fully support there being consultation on this issue, but ultimately SCAG is waiting for the South Australian attorney to agree to consult on the matter,” Victorian Attorney General Rob Hulls said.

The office of federal attorney General Robert McClelland added: “At this stage, censorship ministers are considering the content of a draft discussion paper and awaiting comments on the draft from South Australia. Any changes to classification categories, including introducing an R18+ classification for computer games, require unanimous support of the Commonwealth and all state and territories.”

Once the paper’s finalised, the public will be invited to enter a debate on the introduction of the R18+ classification for video games in Australia.

Atkinson’s staunchly opposed to the 18+ rating. Read more on that here.

More on Gamespot.

This just gets rosier. According to a filing made by new Midway owner Mark Thomas, Midway’s going to very quick cash from Acquisitions Holding Subsidiary, his shell company, and he wants his investment collateral protected.

“It is beyond dispute that [Midway has] an immediate need to access and use AHS’s Cash Collateral,” said the filing.

“Nor can it be disputed that, based upon the Debtors’ 13 week forecasted Budget, [Midway is] hemorrhaging cash at an alarming rate. Indeed, the [Midway] Budget indicates that between February 9, 2009 and May 4, 2009, [Midway] will burn through approximately $12,392,598 in cash representing an approximately 75% depletion of its cash reserves.”

Happy talking talking happy talk. More on GamePolitics.

Cryptic showed off a new Star Trek Online ship class overnight, namely the Klingon Raptor.

It’s a scout frigate with lots of guns and torpedoes, basically. From the update:

If the Raptor class ships have a weakness, it is that so much of the available space in the ships is taken up by weapons and shield generators that the limited medical facilities are ill-equipped to deal with large numbers of wounded crew. When asked, Kurak retorted that this was not a failing of the Raptor class, rather it was a reflection of the Klingon warrior ideal to fight with honor, to strive for success and, if necessary, to die in glorious battle. “Klingon warriors do not need healers to lick their wounds. Klingon warriors fight only one way – to the death.”

The MMO’s out next year.

PSP-4000. It’s got a slide screen. It’s got shoulder buttons. Dave Perry is its best friend. Does God of War: Chains of Olympus developer Ready at Dawn know anything about it? No. It doesn’t.

“You know, the way these things work is that, ironically, even if there was a new PSP in the works we would probably be the last people to find out about it,” company CEO Didier Malenfant told Edge yesterday.

“I really have no clue what Sony’s plans are.”

Ready at Dawn is being rumoured as working on a second God of War game for PSP at the moment, so you kind of may have thought it’d know something about it.

Whatever. PSP-4000 will be announced at E3, God willing.

The King of Fighters XII trailer after the break – which looks blinking stupendulous – apparently shows the game as having a summer release date for PS3.

We say “apparently,” because the “summer” bit looks distinctly stuck on. So does the “PlayStation 3″ bit, if we’re being honest.

The game was always pegged for a 2009 release for both PS3 and 360.

Take a look.

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