Monthly Archives: April 2009

The endless, endless stream of music we’ve never heard of continues to be made available for the Wii version of Rock Band tomorrow, this time involving Toby Keith and Yngwie Malmsteen.

At least there’s a track there called “Who’s Your Daddy”. Sweet genius.

• Toby Keith “Should’ve Been a Cowboy”
• Toby Keith “Beer for My Horses”
• Toby Keith “Who’s Your Daddy”
• Toby Keith “How Do You Like Me Now”
• Toby Keith “She’s a Hottie”
• Toby Keith “I Love This Bar”
• Yngwie Malmsteen “Red Devil”
• Yngwie Malmsteen “Damnation Game”
• Yngwie Malmsteen “Caprici di Diablo”
• The Shins “New Slang”
• Black Tide “Warriors of Time”
• Bullet for My Valentine ” Waking the Demon”

They’re $2 (200 Wii Points) per track.

Did you know there was a “Microsoft Japan Spring 2009 Title Preview” tonight at 10pm PST? You do now.

1UP’s liveblogging it, as you can see here.

That’s 6am GMT if you’re in the UK. We’ll have all the stories as they happen.

Stephen Totilo just announced that he’s to leave MTV Multiplayer on Friday after four years with the site.

“I’ve been offered a wonderful opportunity that you’ll be hearing about soon,” he said.

“Don’t worry, it’s not game development. It is games journalism.”

Full thing through there. Good luck, Stephen.

After the break you can see the ten minutes of footage from Wii’s Monster Hunter 3(-tri).

See a warrior wield a sword big enough to hack down a house. It’s awesome.

The latest in the ludicrously high-selling Japanese Capcom franchise is slated for a summer release.

Look down.

More »

Ex-360 boss Peter Moore’s told GTTV that Microsoft’s adventures in motion control won’t be anything as rudimentary as Nintendo’s. No way. It’s going beyond.

He said: “I think that, knowing Microsoft in particular obviously, is that they are constantly thinking three to five years ahead of where consumer behavior’s going to be, how do people want to interact with their games, and are probably thinking about – not how do we replicate, you know, motion control, but how do we go one step further?”

“So, to your point, I think they’re doing that and I think Sony are probably the same.”

4D motion control? With wanking?

More on 1UP.

Former Bastion PR man Mark Ward has landed at Warner Bros, according to this MCV story.

Said Ward: “This is a really exciting time to be joining Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and with titles like Terminator Salvation, Scooby Doo, The Clique and LEGO Battles, 2009 is going to be a huge year. They’re a great team and I’m very much looking forward to playing my part.”

Ward left Bastion after 13 years earlier this month.

Good man. Rest through the link.

BioWare’s just tweeted that E3 may be too long to wait for Mass Effect 2 details.

“Marketing hint from this morning’s team meeting. You may not need to wait till E3 for more Mass Effect 2 information,” said a rep.

Sounds good to us. Twitter really is bonkers. It’s like we blinked and the modern age happened.

IGN’s finally made a move on the German market, buying community site GIGA.de.

The site tracks at 700,000 UU per month, and was described by IGN today as “one of the most popular and highly trafficked gaming Internet sites in Germany”.

“We are extremely excited about welcoming GIGA.DE as part of IGN Entertainment and continuing our international expansion by entering the German market for the first time,” said IGN international boss, Chris Ellis.

“As gamers ourselves we’re passionate about the industry and are always looking for ways to support the local gaming industry and fans. The German gaming market is one of the biggest in Europe, and the massive potential it offers made it a natural choice for us.”

IGN’s been skirting the non-English-speaking European market for years, having set up IGN UK in 2006.

Press release after the hop.

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Whoops. An Iowa State University study has found that 8.5 percent of game-playing American youths aged 8-18 show multiple signs of behavioral addiction.

From this Washington Post piece:

The study found that 88 percent of the nation’s children ages 8 to 18 play video games. With 45 million children of that age in the country, the study would suggest that more than 3 million are addicted “or at least have problems of the magnitude” that call for help, Gentile said.

“It’s not that the games are bad,” said Gentile, who is also director of research at the nonprofit National Institute on Media and the Family. “It’s not that the games are addictive. It’s that some kids use them in a way that is out of balance and harms various other areas of their lives.”

Full thing through there. Scary reading.

Barron’s said yesterday that it believed Nintendo stock had been oversold, and that strong growth in the firm should resume this year.

Nintendo shares have been damaged by reduced forecasting this year.

Barron’s said, however, that some analysts believe the company beat profit expectations for the year completed, delivering $5.6 billion operating profit, and predict that earnings will rise sharply in fiscal 2010.

Buy! Or not. More on Reuters.

NCsoft’s latest zone tour video for Aion: The Tower of Eternity shows off the Morheim zone.

There’s not much to dislike here. It’s lovely. Watch on.

Aion’s out in the West this year, all being well.

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YouTube videoer Shokio has landed an interview with the High Voltage team, asking each staff member what their favorite part of the game is. Watch it after the break.

Game’s out June 23 and 26 in North America and Europe respectively.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

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Sony just confirmed that PSP’s next Firmware update, v5.50, will release tomorrow, April 21.

The new Firmware version will allow people to browse the PSP Store whether or not they have a PSN account.

You’ll also be able to internet-search PSP games straight off the XMB.

Announcement after the break.

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Sony’s to release two new PSP bundles centred on two months’ worth of GO!VIEW subscription included in the pack. They’re both out on May 8.

• The first GO!VIEW pack will retail for £149.99 and includes a PSP3000 (Black), a 2Gb Memory Stick, a mini-USB cable and a GO!VIEW voucher for two months’ free subscription.
• The second retail bundle is priced at £29.99 and comprises a 4Gb Memory Stick, a mini-USB cable and the GO!VIEW two months’ free subscription voucher.

Press release after the break.

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Star Wars: The Old Republic’s business model will depend on what’s considered to be the norm on other MMOs, BioWare’s told VG247, likely meaning the game will carry a subs model in the West.

“The way we look at these things is, ‘What’s the standard at the time?’ Obviously we’re not quite done yet. We’ve got a lot of work left to do. But we’ll be very conscious of how the market looks,” company head Greg Zeschuk said, speaking at GDC.

Both Zeschuk and BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka were at pains to stress the game’s business model has yet to be announced.

EA has previously said that the MMO, which as yet has no released date, will be a worldwide affair.

Microsoft just announced the 360 Game of the Year bundle, containing an Elite, Halo 3 and Fable II for $399.

That means the games are free, essentially. It’s out in May.

We’re just heard that Bethesda’s announced a new Fallout game – titled Fallout: New Vegas – at its London showcase.

Apparently it’s the same style of game as Fallout 3.

We’re waiting on more detail.

Update: It’s releasing in 2010. Obsidian’s developing.

Update 2: It’s PC, PS3 and 360. Not a Fallout 3 sequel.

CVG’s posted 162 new Wii screens of Pikmin 2. You may as well look as them: it’s dry as a bone today.

It’s out on Friday.

Sony has told VG247 that it’s “captured the hardcore” with PS3, and while it will serve that central user with titles such as Heavy Rain and God of War III later this year, it plans on pushing further into the casual space with the console.

“There’s certainly a line-up of very strong family-friendly titles that we’re looking at for PS3 in our continuing effort to appeal to that casual consumer,” said SCEA hardware marketing boss John Koller, speaking at GDC.

“We’ve captured the hardcore. The install base we have now tells us that the hardcore’s purchased. We’re moving on now to continue to support them with a tremendous line-up of games, but also look at softer brands that maybe we had with PS2 franchises we’re bringing over to PS3, or new IP.”

Koller told us to look to the past for hints to PS3′s future.

“Think of some of the latter-half PS2 franchises,” he said.

E3′s not that far away, is it?

Kotaku’s posted up sales targets WiiWare developers apparently have to reach before they see any revenue at all.

And they are:

North America

If game is over 16MB – 3,000 units
If game is under 16MB – 2,000 units

Once devs break through these barriers, they receive 65 percent of revenue.

Gama learned of the practice of setting limits on WiiWare titles last week.