Monthly Archives: April 2009

Rebellion’s Rogue Warrior doesn’t only have Mickey Rourke – it has screenshots too. Get them after the break.

It does, in fact, have it all. It’s got a beard. And a knife. There’s nothing else it could have.

PC, PS3 and 360 in the fourth quarter.

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When you’re wrong you’re wrong. We were wrong. Former SCEE president David Reeves isn’t going to Realtime Worlds.

“I’d never ever heard of Realtime Worlds until someone asked me about them a couple of days ago,” he told Develop.

“I can honestly say no, that rumour is not true.”

We’d been told that Reeves was on his way to RTW as CEO. The company confirmed today that former Capcom Euro boss Gary Dale has taken the position.

That’s right, Mr Source. We’re looking at you.

After the break. However you dress it up, this looks pretty bloody awesome.

Get every multiplayer impressions piece published so far here. The a bit from Evan Wells on the PS Blog here.

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For the record, Uncharted 2 has multiplayer options. A few impressions pieces just went up from last week’s Sony event and the embargo’s gone, from the look of it, so we’ll add them as they appear.

• IGN impressions
• Multiplayer beta access with inFamous confirmed (IGN)
• Shacknews impressions
• Kotaku impressions
• Gamespot video interview
• Gamespot impressions
• Eurogamer impressions
• 1UP impressions
• Destructoid impressions
• Joystiq impressions

European 360 marketing boss David Gosen has told MCV that games releases need to be spread out of the Christmas season. In case you didn’t know, obviously.

“Of course Christmas is still the key selling period, but we need to look at de-seasonalising,” said the exec.

“We launched GTA IV at this time last year, and Capcom’s Resident Evil has shown that you can be successful. As more publishers do this, we’ll create a second or third release window, and that will be great news for the industry.”

Gosen added: “We still have a very seasonally-focused business. You only need look at last Christmas, when nearly 200 titles were released in the space of three or four weeks. There was that crazy week, third week of November.

“The big brands reached the top and everything else was left by the wayside. It’s becoming harder and harder to establish new IP in that environment. You have to ask if that’s sustainable.”

More through there.

Koei, Crave and Playlogic have all signed up as ESA members, GI reports.

“Our growing membership is a reflection of the ESA’s valued and successful work on the key public policy issues facing the entertainment software industry,” said ESA boss Michael Gallagher.

“Crave Entertainment, Koei and Playlogic are key partners in leading that effort, and I am pleased to welcome them to the ESA.”

Good for you, ESA. More through the link.

The first two Max Payne games are now up on XBLA for 1,200 MS Points each.

These have to be worth a punt, if only to laugh at Max’s wank-face as he dives through the air in slow motion.

Off you go.

Bethesda’s released a bunch of new WET shots in celebration of the fact it’s picked it up for an autumn release.

You’ll see them if you hit the link. Lots of swords and “style” going on, there. Fingers cross.

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America’s getting a green DS. A lime green one. There are some shots of the packing and an attractive green wallet thing after the break.

Yep, it’s a DS, according to the press release, not a DSi.

It’s out on May 3.

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Bethesda’s confirmed it’s to publish A2M’s WET.

Famitsu actually leaked (geddit?) this over the weekend to no comment from the publisher.

The acrobatic shooter’s out this autumn for PS3 and 360.

“We’re very excited about the opportunity to bring WET to all gamers,” said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks. “Our proven success as a publisher which focuses on select, innovative titles matches up perfectly with WET’s new class of gameplay.”

Press release after the break.

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Author Greg Keyes is to pen a pair of Elder Scrolls for Bethesda, the publisher said today.

The first novel – The Infernal City – with release this autumn.

Both books are original stories based in the Elder Scrolls universe.

“We’ve been big fans of Greg’s work for a long time, and we’re thrilled he agreed to bring his talents to The Elder Scrolls,” said Bethesda’s Pete Hines.

“We see these books as a natural extension of the franchise and think fans will love the stories and characters Greg has created.”

Press release after the break.

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Actor Mickey Rourke is to voice “battle-tested Richard ‘Demo Dick’ Marcinko, a real-life Navy SEAL and founder of the elite SEAL Team 6,” in Rebellion’s Rogue Warrior.

“Mickey Rourke was our first choice to play Marcinko in Rogue Warrior,” said producer Todd Vaughn.

“He absolutely, 100 percent captures Marcinko’s raw and gritty personality.”

But does he go to Brazil and have sex with Carré Otis? It’s the question on everyone’s lips.

PC, PS3 and 360 in the fourth quarter. Press release after the break.

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Realtime Worlds has confirmed that Gary Dale has joined the developer as CEO.

Ex-SCEE boss David Reeves was heavily tipped for the job when he stood down from his Sony role earlier this month.

Dale was previously Euro MD for Capcom.

“Having worked with Gary earlier in his career at BMG Interactive, I am deeply impressed with his management style and profound understanding of the entertainment business,” said David Jones, co-founder and creative director, Realtime Worlds.

“As RTW transitions from being a traditional developer to an online publisher I could not be happier that Gary will lead us through this exciting phase of our growth. His years of experience at companies such as Capcom and Take-Two will prove invaluable in ensuring we meet our goals of becoming a world leading next-generation online publisher. My focus going forward will be on ensuring we continue to deliver quality innovative experiences as with our debut title, Crackdown.”

There’s a press release here.

Thanks, deftangel.

Square super-boss Yoichi Wada’s told GI that his company takes too long to make games. With all due respect, Yoichi, a lot of people have been saying the same thing for a very, very long time.

“Yes – that’s what I hope to achieve for the entire group,” he said. “But we at Square Enix also have a problem – it takes too long for us to produce a game…

“In reality I think the issues we have are basically the same. On one side you might say that because of the budgetary constraints they released the games without having the games polished to perfection, but on the other side we take too long to release the game.

“So we have the same issue in the management and control of the process isn’t strict enough. Even though we’re producing entertainment products we need to have the right production process in place – and that is something that I’d like to implement across the entire business in our group.”

There’s an interview here.

Battlefield Heroes’ beta phase looks to be entering a far wider phase today, with CVG now offering 100,000 keys.

We just got one. Took about five minutes to go through all the rigmarole of getting logged in on the game site itself, but it’s all done now.

The free-to-play shooter’s out this summer. Go play it. It doesn’t cost anything.

Good shit, yo. Sony’s confirmed Sucker Punch’s inFamous for a May 29 release in the UK.

It’s out in the US on May 21.

Is this the promised “electrifying announcement“? Keep watching, glowy PS3 superhero, fans.

LittleBigPlanet and BioShock are being offered new for £8.95 by Zavvi.

People are going to start giving LBP away soon. We should start a book on who’s going to drop to a fiver first.

Those prices are for today only, and there are plenty more games to be had for peanuts. Thanks, that_happy_cat.

The fifth Star Wars: The Old republic comic’s gone live, as you can see here.

There are links there to the previous four episodes, just in case you wer slack enough to miss one.

No date on the BioWare MMO as yet.

Blizzard’s put up a page accepting beta keys handed out to Blizzcon 08 attendees.

The game? Unconfirmed, but it’s almost certainly StarCraft II. Blizzard COO Paul Sams said the beta was on the way in the “coming months” in February.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

Wii Fit is yet again first place in the UK charts this week, holding off a decent debut challenge from Riddick: Dark Athena.

Data below from the week ending April 25. Last week’s chart here.