Monthly Archives: May 2009

Speaking in today’s full-year investor call, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot narrowed down release dates by quarter for the following titles:

Q3 (November – December 2009)
Assassin’s Creed 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction; Red Steel 2, Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage and Rabbids Go Home.

Q4 (January 2010 to March 2010)
R.U.S.E., I Am Alive and a new Ghost Recon.

Good news for those dying for the much delayed Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage will release this holiday, Ubisoft said today.

The sequel will be a Wii exclusive, and put players on a competition tour of locales such as France, New York, Canada, and Japan.

Radical, dude. More from E3. Press release after the break.

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Today, Ubisoft released its results for the fiscal year ended March 31, showing sales up 14 percent and a net income of $95.8 million (€68.8 million).

Full year 2008-2009 sales came in at $1.4 billion (€1.05 billion), up 18.4 percent.

“Ubisoft ended fiscal 2008-09 with full-year sales growth of 18.4 percent at constant exchange rates, the second best profitability among comparable companies in its industry, and a 5.1 percent rise in net income excluding non-recurring items and before stock-based compensation,” said CEO Yves Guillemot in a statement.

“This performance illustrates Ubisoft’s unique business model with cost-competitive development studios and some of the most talented developers in the industry. It enables the Group to be at the leading edge of innovation and offer superior quality games, while maintaining a high level of profitability.”

Casual games accounted for 31.9 percent of sales with the distribution end claiming 7.6 percent and a rise in gross profit for the company of $37.4 million (€26.8 million).

Investments increased by 84 million, along with the acquisition of five development studios and the hiring of 1,300 staffers, which Guillemot said will move the company towards higher quality games.

This includes the expansion of the Shawn White Snowboarding series with the release of World Stage in time for the holidays, and a bigger-badder Assassin’s Creed, which cost the company 20 percent more than the previous iteration.

Konami’s E3 press conference promises to be a bang-up event, apparently, according to its press release.

It’s promising “surprise guests and revolutionary announcements” and declares it to be “an event you do not want to miss.”

Featuring a variety of high-profile speakers for all major platforms, Konami’s Press Conference will highlight games across all genres targeted towards players of all age groups and skill levels. Konami will feature groundbreaking announcements that you will truly not want to miss.

It takes place next Wednesday at 3.00pm PST. Can’t wait.

Jon Peddie Research has announced its market forecast for PC gaming hardware, and while the report says consumer spending has slowed a bit in the gaming industry, the PC gaming segment has been especially resistant.

The firm has forecast the total PC hardware market to drop $1.4 billion due to recession-based sales and the lower cost of PCs and components. Despite this, PC gaming systems have suffered the least discounting due to the value consumers place on the system.

JPR says the reason the PC sector has lost less during the economic climate is due to consumers staying home more and spending less on outside entertainment.

“PC Gaming is a very economical form of entertainment, a $50 game can provide hundreds of hours of play, and it’s not uncommon for players to replay a game,” said the report.

“Also, purchases of a PC for gaming can be shared since the machine can be used for watching (and creating) videos, as well as office work and web browsing, something consoles can’t offer.”

PC sales are expected to reach $19 billion this year and outsell gaming consoles by almost $2 billion.

Zipper multi-shooter MAG is to be playable at E3 next week, SCEE has just confirmed to VG247.

Journalists are to be allowed to play as part of a an eight-man squad, led by one of the devs, in a 256-player game.

Hot bastard. We’re proto-pumped. Let’s fucking do this shit, yo. It’s E3!

Sony will update Killzone 2 to v1.27 “tomorrow morning,” SCEE just said via email.

A lot of “tweaking” has gone on, from the look of it, in response to user feedback.

There’s a Q&A detailing the release after the break.

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EA’s confirmed that John “Overlord” Riccitiello himself will host its E3 press conference.

The event will take place next Monday at LA’s Orpheum Theatre at 2.00pm PST.

“Upcoming initiatives and games” are on the slate. If you’re looking for the likes of Brutal Legend, Mass Effect 2 and all the rest, you’re in the right place.

We’ll be liveblogging it.

Echoes of War, the collection of music from Blizzard games performed by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra, has been reprinted and released with a new limited-time price.

The two-disc collection includes music from Warcraft III, World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King, StarCraft, StarCraft II, Diablo II, Diablo III, and StarCraft: Ghost.

Bonus tracks feature music arranged by Shadow of the Colossus composer, Kow Otani.

A three-disc limited edition is also available and if you pre-order the standard set, you will get a $5 discount.

More through the link.

Thanks, D’toid.

Tor Publishing is to publish a BioShock novel this fall, which will “take you deeper into the realms” of the underwater world’s story.

The announcement was sent via a teaser page to Gamasutra. Other than the book being 400-pages long and coming in both both hardcover and paperback, not much else is known.

Ken Levine is listed as the author, but Gamasutra points out that the novel may be “based on his concepts, rather than his actual writing.”

Tor is best known as the publishers of multiple best-selling fantasy and sci-fi series such as Conan, Ender’s Game and the Sword of Truth.

Other notable books based on videogames that have been published by Tor include the new Dragon Age novel and the Halo series. Tor will also publish EVE: The Burning Life this year, based on EVE Online.

More through the link.

38 Studios has bought Big Huge Games from THQ, as press released here.

Acquiring the Rise of Nations developer will allow 38 to expand its Copernicus IP across multiple genres, the company said, giving users “a much broader, all-encompassing Online Entertainment Experience”.

Full thing through there. Congrats, Big Huge Games people. The ones that weren’t laid off, anyway.

Tecmo Bowl Wii is on hold and has been replaced by Family Fun Football, which was announced last Friday, Tecmo said today.

The game is still slated to hit Xbox Live Arcade in early 2010, though, so don’t be too terribly sad.

“As much as we’d like to say this [Family Fun Football] is a completely different game, it did start out as the ‘Tecmo Bowl Wii’ project,” a Tecmo spokesperson told G4.

“However, given the recent trend on the Wii and its target audience, Tecmo made a business decision to switch the project into a family oriented football game. So then what happens to Tecmo Bowl? For now, we’re focusing on bringing Tecmo Bowl to the Xbox LIVE Arcade early 2010.”

No details for the XBL version were given, but is expected to be shown at E3.

Apocalypse Now writer and Conan the Barbarian director John Milius will compose the story for Kaos Studios FPS Homefront, THQ said today.

The game’s single-player story takes place ten years after economic collapse in the US, where the American Civilian Resistance is battling it out against an “oppressive North Korean occupation”.

“Homefront isn’t about going to war on the other side of the world or battling aliens from another planet; it’s about fighting foreign invaders in your own backyard and defending your right to live,” said David Votypka, design director at Kaos Studios.

Multiplayer’s included as well. THQ will debut the game at E3 next week.

It’s slated for release on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, with a release yet to be announced soon.

Via Gamasutra.

Free Realms has been out a month and already it can claim over 2 million unique users.

According to Sony, 75 percent of the players are under 17 years old, 46 percent are under 13, and a third are female.

“In less than a month, Free Realms has captivated a core player base of tween and teen gamers, while also strongly resonating with MMO gamers,” said SOE president John Smedley.

“We wanted to create a game to play with our families and are excited to have hit the mark with our intended audience.”

Earlier this month, Sony announced that within 17 days 1 million users had already flocked to the game.

More over at GI.Biz.

Wii horror JU-ON: The Grudge will release in Europe this fourth quarter, Rising Star said today.

This is good news, if you like a scare. This is the game of the film, basically.

Press release after the break.

Update: It’s actually out in October, says Eurogamer.

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Whoops. NetDevil’s delayed Jumpgate Evolution, offering no new time-scale for the MMO’s release.

“Jumpgate Evolution is nearly feature complete, but since entering the Friends & Family phase of testing we’ve been able to bring new eyes onto the game and get solid, crucial feedback from actual players and fans,” said a rep in this forum post.

“Based on these results, it is clear that the product needs more time to meet its objectives.”

Space will have to wait, clearly. Full thing through the link. Thanks, Massively.

What the world needs is more music-related tat to clutter up the fragile lives of normal people. Thankfully, then, Numark and Genius showed the Scratch: The Ultimate DJ controller today, ahead of an E3 showing next week.

We thought this was on a sticky wicket? Anyway. Press release and shots after the break.

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Popular Rare community manager George Kelion confirmed today he’s leaving the UK developer for a new PR role at Warner Bros.

Kelion’s been with Rare for several years, most recently working on the releases of the latest Banjo-Kazooie and Viva Pinata games.

Best of luck, George.

Lips: Number One Hits has been announced by Microsoft today and is expected to hits shelves in October.

Here are the tracks that have been announced so far:

• “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay
• “Disturbia” by Rihanna
• “U Can’t Touch This,” by MC Hammer
• “More Than Words,” by Extreme
• “Apologize” by Timbaland featuring OneRepublic
• “Karma Chameleon” by Culture Club
• “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” by Marvin Gaye
• “Oh, Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison
• “Ready, Set, Go!” by Tokio Hotel

Press release through the break.

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Speaking to GI, Home director Peter Edward has confirmed that the weirdy PS3 MMO thing has been downloaded more than 6.5 million times.

Sony doesn’t intend on milking the app for cash, Edward said, despite its popularity.

“We do have a profit and loss on Home, and obviously revenue is an important part of it, just like with anything else.

“But our belief is that if you make the community happy, and get good content on to the platform – if you get a platform that people want to keep coming back to – then the monetisation aspect of it will almost take care of itself.

“It’s certainly not something that should be the driving force – not something that’s the driving priority at this stage of development.”

More through there.