Monthly Archives: April 2009

Konami’s announced a new Vandal Hearts game for XBLA and PSN release.

The title, Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment is a prequel to the original, and is scheduled for September release.

The TRPG was released on PSone and Saturn in 1996 and 1997 respectively. Never say die, eh?

Bit of a Sims-WoW whitewash in the US PC chart this week, unsurprisingly so thanks to a lack of new releases.

Data’s for the week ending April 4. Last week’s chart here.

1. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe – EA
2. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King – Activision Blizzard
3. Empire: Total War – Sega
4. The Sims 2 Apartment Life – Electronic Arts
5. World of Warcraft Battle Chest – Activision Blizzard
6. World of Warcraft – Activision Blizzard
7. Dawn of War II – THQ
8. The Sims 2 Pets – EA
9. Spore – EA
10. The Sims 2 University – EA

SCEA’s confirmed last night’s rumour that Patapon 2 will be a digital-only release in America.

“We’re considering a digital-only format for the Patapon 2 release as a one time test case as we continue to explore consumer preferences for digital content,” SCEA comms boss Patrick Seybold said in a statement.

“The downloadable game will be available on May 5th at both retail and via the PlayStation Store. We remain focused on providing superior games and entertainment experiences in both the UMD and digital formats and are working closely with our partners to deliver the best PSP line up in our history.”

If you buy the game’s box at retail, you’re going to get a case and a download voucher.

The game’s already out in Europe.

Bungie’s confirmed the patently ridiculous fact that more than 10 billion Campaign kills have now been made in Halo 3.

The “milestone” has been reached in 565 days.

That means 17,500,000 Covenant have been killed daily since the game launched. That’s 730,000 killed per hour. Or 12,000 Covenant troops killed per minute.

Baffle yourself more through the link.

Nelson’s confirmed that this week’s Live special deal is for GRAW 2 Co-Op Collection 2.

The DLC now costs 320 points, a saving of 20 percent.

Don’t stop the party. The discount’s only available to Gold Live members.

Arstechnica’s rumouring that Patapon 2′s to be a UMD-less affair in the US.

That report claims retail cases will be empty, instead containing a download voucher.

There’s no official word from Sony as yet, although it’d be about as surprising as June following May were it true.

Sony’s confirmed that inFamous will release at the end of May in the US, not in June as originally planned.

The superly heroic Sucker Punch open-worlder will hit on May 26, with a preceding demo planned for May 21.

No news on the European date as yet. More through there.

Wii Fit’s still top of the UK chart, with this week’s strongest contender – EA Godfather II – managing a second place.

Data below for the week ending April 11. Last week’s chart here.

Gamespot’s posted three new screens of Konami’s Six Days in Fallujah.

If it’s realism city you’re after, this game is mayor. Apart from the fact that players aren’t actually in an insane, senseless firefight with random people they want to kill for no reason, obviously.

It’s out later this year.

A few hands-on impressions of Konami’s SAW game just went up, the first look at running code.

“Saw takes place in an abandoned insane asylum and uses a mix of puzzle-solving and exploration-based gameplay,” according to Gamespot, and has “randomly generated” traps and puzzles, says Kotaku.

It’s out at the end of this year. These piece are from a US Konami event, so expect more soon.

Update: More here from Destructoid and IGN.

Take-Two shares are way up today, having enjoyed an 11.9 percent rise to $9.40 this morning. They also rose more than 5 percent last Thursday.

Why? FlyOnTheWall‘s claiming there’s “renewed buyout chatter” surrounding the firm.

$9.40 isn’t quite the $25.74-a-share offer EA trotted out last year, is it?

Thanks, Barron’s.

This Digital Battle post is claiming Deadline Games may be facing bankruptcy.

The developer put Faith and a .45 on hold to work on Watchmen, but is apparently desperately seeking a new project, one it didn’t find at GDC.

No idea how solid this is. Thanks, Joystiq.

EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich said today an approximate 200,000 sales for GTA: Chinatown Wars in the US last month proves M-rated games are a “risky” business on DS.

“It appears the industry may have been over-zealous with initial expectations on how GTA: Chinatown Wars would perform based upon the news it had received one of the highest quality scores for a Nintendo DS title,” says Divnich.

Quality scores alone don’t seem to be a major driver of sales on the DS, said the analyst.

“The results from Chinatown are an important benchmark for the industry, as it will be the best-performing mature rated title on the Nintendo DS to date coupled with one of the strongest mature-rated game brands,” he added.

More on Gama.

Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter has predicted that, despite another massive month for Wii in the US in March, PS3 significantly closed its gap on 360 compared to February.

The analyst guessed today that 800,000 Wii, 400,000 360, and 350,000 PS3 consoles were sold in America
last month.

PS3 was soundly beaten by 360 in February, selling 276,000 units to the Microsoft console’s 391,000.

“Our console sell-through forecasts reflect our belief supply and demand for Wii hardware are finally in balance, with most of the upside in unit sales attributable to growing demand for the Xbox 360 and PS3,” Pachter said in a note this afternoon.

By comparison, EEDAR predicted today that 900,000 Wiis, 395,000 360s and 300,000 PS3 were sold in the US last month.

March NPD figures will release on Thursday.

Famitsu’s posted some screens and art of Sega and Tri-Ace’s End of Eternity.

The cross-platform RPG was announced last week, and looks about as Japanese as role-playing gets.

It’s out this year for PS3 and 360. Thanks, Kotaku.

Goonl!ne’s posted up proper scans of the Assassin’s Creed II cover feature from the latest Game Informer.

The images are fully readable, showing that 240 people are working on the game and confirming that all previously leaked info from the piece was true.

Fill your boots.

Orchestral thing Video Games Live is to perform at E3 this year.

The concert’s to take place at the Greek Theatre in LA on June 4.

Get all the details on GoNintendo.

Valkyria Chronicles producer Nonaka Ryutaro has told Famitsu that he’s interested in doing a sequel to the TRPG, which is probably good news considering the rabid following the game’s picked up.

Apparently he was “adamant about not leaving the game at just one title,” according to this PS3Center story.

Happy Monday, PS3 owners.

Microsoft’s hinted at a mobile Halo project in a jobs listing, as you can see here.

The job will fuse “console, web, and mobile to create an immersive Halo world that follows the dedicated Halo fan wherever they go.”

That iPhone Halo app you’ve been dreaming of for the last six months just got a few steps closer.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Nothing major really took place in the land of MMOs this week, but there were are loads of little things that matter to someone out there.

That’s why we’re here.

Read on.

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