Monthly Archives: April 2009

Another load of shots for Grand Slam Tennis were released today, along with a video.

Don’t forget that you can use Wii MotionPlus with it once the peripheral releases on June 8.

Look below for the video, and on CVG for the pretty little pictures.

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Apple’s confirmed that Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D is the most downloaded paid app from its App Store.

The news comes as part of a celebration for its one-billionth App Store download.

The Activision racer was among the first applications available from the Store’s launch over nine months ago, and at $5.99, this game – along with Sega’s Super Monkey Ball – is also the most costly on the list.

More on GI.

A new trailer for Frozenbyte’s Trine’s been released. Watch it here.

The fantasy action game looks drop-dead gorgeous. The music isn’t too shabby either.

It releases for PC and PSN sometime this quarter.

Thanks, Paavi.

Binary Tweed has announced that Clover may hit Xbox 360 Community Games soon.

Daniel “Deejay” Jones posted on the company’s blog that he hopes the upcoming puzzle-platformer will be submitted to peer review this weekend. If all goes well, Clover could see a release “as early as next week.”

Clover will run you 400 MS Points ($5.00).

Via Joystiq.

Booster packs are coming to Magic Ball, Cuboid, and Mahjong Tales: Ancient Widsom via PSN, says Creat Studios.

The Magic Ball Booster Pack will be the first to land. Expect it this Thursday.

Cuboid and Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom Booster Packs will be released in the coming weeks.

Gives you something to look forward to.

Killzone 2′s first DLC, the Steel and Titanium map pack, will be available for download on April 30.

The date was announced on the PS Blog, but no price was forthcoming: still “TBA,” apparently.

There’s details and screens through there.

NCsoft has unveiled Paragon Studios, based out of Mountain View, CA.

Formerly known as NCsoft NorCal, the satellite office will continue to work on City of Heroes and other MMOs.

“The renaming of our studio to Paragon Studios represents our devotion to the present and future of the City of Heroes series,” said GM and producer Brian Clayton.

“As pioneers in the comic book-inspired MMO genre, together with our esteemed veteran development team, it is our mission to continually strive for innovation, solidify the strength of our brand, and continue providing high quality experiences for City of Heroes and any future projects that come from Paragon Studios.”

Back in February, NCsoft let over 55 of its Brighton staffers go and planned to move development positions to the States.

Press release through the break.

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Gamsutra has dug up a Netflix job listing, seeking an Engineering Leader in Gaming Platforms with “deep experience developing and testing media rich applications on current generation gaming consoles.”

Job expectations include building a small technology team to “rapidly prototype and iterate on a variety of platforms,” leading a “small team with a huge mandate.”

Thanks to Netflix’s deal with Microsoft, over one million Xbox Live Gold subscribers have used the rental service since November 2008 to view over 12,000 film and TV offerings through the Watch Instantly feature.

Over 1.5 billion minutes have been watch so far using this feature, and rumors of PS3 and Wii getting the service have been floating about since launch.

During GDC, David Jaffe, Jeff Gerstmann, and Michael Pachter sat down with GameTrailers TV to talk about gaming in the recession. Watch the discussion after the break.

In it, Jaffe’s weighs in on the used game market, Gerstmann’s talks about OnLive, and Pachter’s looks into his crystal ball for the coming year.

It is definitely worth the watch. Follow the jump.

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MTV has promoted Shane Satterfield, former GameTrailers editor-in-chief, to Spike’s VP of content, reports GI.biz.

Satterfield will continue to head GameTrailers, but new responsibilities include accruing new content for the Spike website.

“I am excited to welcome Shane into this new role,” said Jon Slusser, senior VP. “He will bring his creativity, leadership skills and proven success to Spike.com as he has to GameTrailers.”

Satterfield will also work closely with Viacom’s marketing department.

Sony’s Peter Dille has claimed that PS3 has a higher attach rate than Xbox 360, Gamasutra reports.

“If you factor in Xbox 360’s longer time in the marketplace and larger install base, Xbox 360 should be selling twice as many software units as PS3 if attach rates were equal — and that is just not what we are seeing at retail with many multiplatform titles,” he said.

Here are the figures:

• Street Fighter IV: Only 44,000 units separate the two consoles, with Microsoft winning by a 1:1 ratio. Yet the Sony version sold 402,919 units giving it an attach rate of 5.5 percent compared to Microsoft’s 446,435 units with a 3.1 percent attach rate.

• Tomb Raider: Underworld sold 136,245 units on PS3, with an attach rate of 1.9 percent. The Xbox 360 version sold 108,784 units, giving an attach rate of 0.7 percent.

• Prince of Persia: Microsoft outsold Sony by 36,000 units giving the title a attach rate of 2.1 percent for the console compared to 3.7 percent on PS3.

• GTA IV: Had a 26.9 percent attach rate on PS3 versus Xbox 360′s 23 percent, but there was a staggering sales gap between the machines: 3,362,196 360 units were sold compared to 1,959,798 units for PS3.

Dille goes on to cite Metacritic numbers and more Xbox 360 comparisons, but we’ll let you hit the link for those. Percentages and the phrase “attach rate” have been mentioned enough without us adding to it.

Former US Edge Online editor Kris Graft has taken on the roll of Content Director for the Independent Games Festival, and as Senior Contributing Editor for Gamasutra.

His main focus with the IGF will be expanding the judge panel and providing creative feedback on the event.

Graft’s contributions to Gamasutra will be daily.

We knew that Final Fantasy XIII would be released in Japan for PS3 sometime this year, we just weren’t sure when. Fret no longer: the game’s demo confirms it’ll land this winter in Japan.

The hour-long taster’s included in the Blu-ray release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, releasing this week in Japan.

The full game will release for the rest of the globe sometime in 2010.

Thanks, GameZine.

EA’s released a video showing how important the Wii Balance Board is to EA Sports Active.

Can just see someone slipping of the thing while kickboxing, to be honest.

If this sort of thing is your cup of tea, or you’re just interested in getting one for your Mom on Mother’s Day, watch the video after the break.

It’s out on May 19.

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God of War III’s Stig Asmussen has told CVG that he hopes EA’s upcoming actioner Dante’s Inferno gives God of War III a bit of competition.

“Some of the guys who used to work on GOW are working on Dante’s,” he said. “Really good guys. I hope they make a fantastic game that serves as good competition for us. I think using Dante’s Inferno as a theme could really cook into something special – it is a very rich world to draw from.

“As far as a threat to Kratos goes, I hope so. We need more great games in this genre.”

Other than a few trailers and screens, he had not seen much of the game, but is aware that preliminary thoughts on the title are positive.

Read on through the link to find out more on Kratos’ latest adventure, and why Asmussen called Devil May Cry 4 “Game Developers May Cry”.

Good stuff.

Edge publishing director James Binns said today that moving control of Edge Online to the UK from San Francisco and installing a new editor and news ed would allow for “effective planning and more flexibility in news gathering”.

Former EIC Colin Cambell left the site on Friday, as did staffers Kris Graft and Rob Crossley. Campbell this morning posted an blistering view of the situation on his new site, GameBizBlog.

Here’s the Future statement in full. There’s a word there from Edge editor Tony Mott as well.

James Binns, Publishing Director of Edge, said:

“Any brand needs a strong, consistent voice across multiple media. We’re focused on developing the best quality content from the ground up that works well in print and online, and has a true global voice. That means effective planning and more flexibility in news gathering. The changes to the team that we’re making will put us in a stronger position to achieve this.

“As we wish three of Edge Online’s freelance contributors the best of luck in their next roles, we’re pleased to announce two full-time appointments for the site, both of whom offer cross-media skills and experience with the Edge brand. Alex Wiltshire, previously deputy editor of Edge magazine, moves into the role of editor, Edge Online, while Tom Ivan, an Edge Online veteran, becomes the site’s news editor.”

Tony Mott, Editor in Chief of Edge, added:

“Following our issue-200 print promotion and a period of consistent audience and traffic growth on our website, the Edge brand is in a great position, and our strategy for Edge Online – strengthening the core editorial team to work across print and web, while continuing to expand our network of reporters globally – will help us to maintain this momentum throughout 2009.”

Eleven new Bayonetta shots have popped up on IGN. An odd number for a game with an odd premise.

Still, it’s by Hideki Kamiya – therefore we’re intrigued.

The game is slated for PS3 and Xbox 360 this fall.

id Software’s Todd Hollenshead had told Gamespot that the firm will show off “new stuff” at E3 this year.

“I expect that we’ll have some new stuff at E3 that we haven’t announced yet, along with Wolfenstein and other known projects,” said Hollenshead.

It’s unknown whether or not id will demo Rage and its next Doom game.

“I’ll leave that as a tease,” Hollenshead added.

Wolfenstein is expected sometime this summer for PC, 360 and PS3.

Codemasters just confirmed a May 22 release date for Damnation, Blue Omega’s “vertical” steampunk shooter.

The PS3 and 360 title was supposed to launch last year, but sort of didn’t.

Get the screens below.

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DSi owners will be able to get maps, information and games when they visit the Tokyo Disney Resort later this month, as announced here.

You just turn up and download the software to your machine. It’ll then tell you where to go, how to get there and let you play some basic, resort-related games.

That’s progress. Get more, plus a picture of something called a “Lazy Susan,” through the break.