Monthly Archives: April 2009

Nintendo has “no plans” to release Fatal Frame Wii in Europe, according to this Spong report.

Tecmo confirmed yesterday that Nintendo of America won’t be releasing the horror in the US, so it looks as though the game won’t make it outside Japan.

No so good. At least you can look forward to throwing a virtual frisby in July, western core Wii gamers.

Thanks, Blerk.

Square Enix has launched the java-based Dive II Hunt: Sorbet’s Great Adventure on its MySpace page.

It’s a casual affair that follows the adventures of Sorbet, who is none other than the brother of Final Fantasy XII’s Moogle Montblanc. The goal? To dive into the ocean, collect a mess of fish and upgrade your equipment.

The game even has a leaderboard, and you can try it out for yourself here, providing you have a MySpace account.

Via Kotaku.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has told the Wall Street Journal that it’s his company’s duty to innovate in terms of hardware functionality.

“We are a company that has sought to create entertainment products for as many people as possible,” he said.

“If we were only doing what mobile phone games can do, then handheld games would have disappeared a long time ago. Our job is to come up with things that other devices can’t do.”

Iwata went on to say that Japan’s market is sliding and that Nintendo must play its part in boosting it.

“The Japanese market is not very strong right now overall,” he said.

“So we need to do something to re-energize it.”

Full thing here.

EA Sports boss Peter Moore has told MI6 that EA Sports Active makes the company feel “uncomfortable”.

Apparently this is a good thing.

“They say that if it makes you feel uncomfortable, it’s innovative,” Moore said.

“[EA Sports Active] makes us feel very uncomfortable. We drip with testosterone. We are all about male-fueled angst, agony, delight in sport.”

Whereas the average player of EA Sports Active will “probably be a woman, 35, with two kids at home,” who wants to stay fit, Moore said.

There’s more on VentureBeat. EA Sports Active ships on May 22.

A British man found some “ecstasy tablets” in one of the used GTA games he purchased at a GameStation in Gloucestershire.

“When I opened the box up, the cling film wrap fell out. I could not believe it. I have two children and my son plays Xbox all the time. He could easily have opened the box and found them,” Richard Thornhill told the Telegraph.

“I dread to think what the consequences would have been if he had. He is only 12. He could have died. It was a pre-used game, but that should not make a difference. My wife is beside herself over this because she keeps thinking about what could have happened and so do I.”

Richard never mentioned why his son would have been messing about with mature rated game in the first place.

Via GamePolitics.

Some WipEout HD players are reporting difficulties with the autosave function on the game’s 1.30 update, released this week.

Luckily, some enterprising souls have come up with a workaround, as you can see on the PS boards.

Basically:

1. Sign out of PSN.
2. Launch the game.
3. Choose “Online” from the main menu, and allow it to sign you back into PSN.
4. Acknowledge release notes for the 1.30 patch.
5. Wait for the game to auto-save.

Thanks, Kotaku.

The PS Blog’s put up its April edition of Sack it to Me, detailing all the DLC LittleBigPlanet players can expect this month.

There’s tons of it, and there’s some really cool stuff there, both in terms of items and tools. Just hit the link.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Senjou no Kizuna Portable’s top of the Japanese chart for a second week running, with Koei’s Winning Post World the only HD game in the entire top ten.

Looks like Wii Fit may finally be about to drop out.

Data below for the week ending April 5. Last week’s chart here. Thanks, ChartGet.

01. [PSP] Mobile Suit Gundam: Senjou no Kizuna Portable (Namco Bandai) 34,000 / 119,000
02. [NDS] Mario & Luigi RPG 3 (Nintendo) 33,000 / 497,000
03. [NDS] Pro Yakyuu Famista DS 2009 (Konami) 27,000 / NEW
04. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2 G (PSP the Best) (Capcom) 24,000 / 555,000
05. [PS2] Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2009 (Konami) 16,000 / 93,000
06. [PS3] Musou Orochi Z (KOEI) 15,000 / 185,000
07. [PSP] Disgaea 2 (Nippon Ichi) 15,000 / 54,000
08. [NDS] Super Robot Taisen K (Namco Bandai) 13,000 / 162,000
09. [PS3] Winning Post World (KOEI) 13,000 / NEW
10. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) 12,000 / 3,341,000

SCEA hardware marketing boss John Koller has told the MI6 conference in San Francisco that PS3 Facebook integration is in the works.

From this Joystiq report:

During a panel titled “Casual to the Core: Redefining the Gaming Dynamic,” SCEA’s John Koller talked about social media and how it can affect the games space. When asked by panel moderator John Davison if there would ever be a point when someone could be playing PS3 and have it “spit out something to Facebook,” Koller stated that plans are already afoot. He said that such functionality is “critical not just for marketing but for the types of games we’re trying to develop. That day is coming quicker than some may think.”

Blimey. More through the link.

Will Wright’s told Gamespot that the first Stupid Fun Club projects are to be announced in the coming months.

The designer confirmed he’s leaving EA to start the company yesterday. The firm’s described as n “entertainment think tank”.

“I think it’ll be a few months away,” Wright said on the subject of announcements.

“It’s going to depend on how things develop from here, but we’ve got several projects in the works right now and it’s just not clear when they’ll be announced. That’s my best guess yet.”

It’s highly likely we’re going to see more open-ended simulators from Wright. He told Kotaku last night that there’s going to be “an almost unbroken lineage” between his work at Stupid Fun Club and his previous Maxis games.

Nintendo said today that it has no plans to cut the price of Wii.

The news comes despite sliding Japanese sales and reports that manufacturing costs have sunk significantly since the machine launched.

The firm said it was committed to the machine’s current price point at a press conference in Japan today, at which is also revealed a release date for Wii MotionPlus and Wii Sports Resort, as well as announcing opening weekend DSi sales for the US and Europe.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Update – This Edge story‘s claiming the figure’s 600,000, 300,000 in the US and 300,000 in Europe.

Nintendo’s just confirmed that DSi moved 300,000 units in is first two days on sale in the US and Europe, according to this Kotaku report.

The machine moved 92,000 machines in the UK last weekend, as was confirmed by Chart-Track on Tuesday.

We’re still waiting for exact figures from the US.

Nintendo said today that Wii Sports Resort is to launch in June in Japan, according to this Reuters report.

The sequel will ship overseas the following month.

The title marks the launch of Wii MotionPlus.

The news comes from a Japanese press conference.

Steam has a big sale going on from now until April 13, featuring 50 percent off of all Strategy First games.

You can buy all 30 games in the library for $74.99, a saving of over $275.

Notable titles include: Sacred: Gold, Jack Keane, Sub Command, Disciples II and loads of FlatOut titles.

Sony and MySoti, a t-shirt and on-demand print service, are allowing gamers to bring custom t-shirt designs into Home.

Individual designers will take a cut from the overall profits with real money. Like, real money. So get to work on your designs: there’s an economic crisis on, after all.

Shirts deemed “most wanted” on MySoti will see the digital printing press and find their way into Home.

So far this is only for EMEA.

San Francisco firm Pearl Research has published a report detailing the growth of the online games market in China. Seems it grew over 63 percent in 2008 to $2.8 billion.

It’s estimated that the market will grow to $5.5 billion in 2012. Over 70 percent of China’s 298 million internet users are under 30 years old.

“Trends to track in 2009 include the growth of social networking sites in China, with over 55 million users, and their cross-pollination with games,” said Pearl’s Allison Luong.

“One overall concern is the lack of diversification with many game operators relying on a single title for the bulk of revenues.

“In addition, a glut of content with more than 200 games on the market, makes releasing a breakout hit increasingly difficult.”

Game operators in China told the firm that the global economic crisis has had no negative effect on business, thus giving companies a load of optimism for the future. Six game operators have already surpasses the $200 million revenue mark.

The most popular online game in China? Netease’s Fantasy Westward Journey, which has over 1.8 million peak concurrent users. World of Warcraft is at one million and in fourth place.

Via Edge.

Tomorrow, April 9, EA is launching its first PlayStation Home space in support of The Godfather II.

A Texas Hold ‘Em table’s implemented, allowing you and other Home members to hang out and gamble.

To further celebrate, a Celebrity Poker tournament will be held in-world on Thursday night.

No real celebrities will be present, however. Glitzy.

Loads more through the link.

Radical’s released new screens and a video of Prototype.

The pics show character portraits and a nice bit of gore, while the video posted here is an teaser trailer including cars being turned over and a crow pecking around on a dead body.

Activision announced earlier today that the game’s out June 5 and 9 in the EU and North America respectively, for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Pretty much.

Loads of screens of the Wii shooter can be found here on Gamespot, plus there’s a new video for it after the break.

Sega’s promising a spring release.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

More »

A Raven rep, speaking at GDC, told VG247 that Hugh Jackman really got into his Wolverine role while doing voiceovers for X-Men Origins.

“You should have seen him,” she said. “He really got into the role. He even got up first thing in the morning and took a really cold shower to get himself nice and angry for his part as Wolverine.”

No mention if he ripped anyone in the studio to shreds while he was at it, but it’s nice to know that method acting isn’t a lost art.

The game’s out for all formats on May 1.