Monthly Archives: May 2009

A Metal Gear Solid Touch demo’s been release on the App Store. And here it is.

There’s three levels in there for you, so you should probably play it. You can upgrade to the full version for very little money, if you like it.

France’s Bruce Grannec has won the FIFA Interactive World Cup.

The 22-year-old defeated Mexican Ruben Zerecero 3-1 in a Spanish final to best a competition with an initial entry of 500,000.

Grannec, who wins $20,000 (£13,500) and a new car, said his win “paid back hours and hours of practice”.

More on the BBC.

Another week, another number one for Wii Fit in the UK. Wolverine may have silly claws, but there’s nothing he can do to stop Nintendo’s plastic step.

Data below for the week ending May 2. Last week’s chart here.

Singularity creative director Jon Zuk has admitted ambitions for more games to follow the fledgling FPS, but said Raven is “presumptuous” enough to assume the new IP will spawn sequel.

“Of course we’d love for there to be more Singularity games,” Zuk told VG247, “but right now we’re concentrating on making this first game as good as it can be.

“We haven’t set out with a plan for three, four, or five games because it all depends on this first one and it would be rather presumptuous of us to assume that we should be making a bunch of sequels. ”

Zuk did say, however, that there are plenty of seed-ideas in place for future plotlines.

“We have tons of ideas for future stories and if the game does well and people like it, then of course we will do more,” he said.

Singularity is a present-day FPS set on an ex-Soviet island ‘gone wrong’. Time manipulation’s the key to its puzzles. The game hits PC, 360 and PS3 later this year.

Europeans can now register for the Section 8 beta, to take place this summer.

The TimeGate FPS “gives players unprecedented strategic control over the battlefield, employing tactical assets and on-demand vehicle deliveries to dynamically alter the flow of combat. Set in the distant future when humanity is facing a growing insurrection among its colonies, Earth dispatches the elite 8th Armoured Infantry to turn the tide.”

Sounds awesome. Go play it. There’s no final date on as yet. Press release after the break.

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Speaking to Gamespot, Visceral Games boss Glen Schofield’s confirmed that Dead Space has thus far sold 1.4 million units.

Good stuff, and great news for the IP’s continuation.

Remember: EA full-year financials tonight.

Thanks, Kotaku.

The New Play Control version of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat will release on European Wiis on June 5.

The revamp includes two new stages over the GameCube platformer.

PR after the drop.

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Paramount’s put out a trailer of Star Trek: DAC this morning, showing a bit of gameplay interspersed with footage from the film’s trailer. It’s well epic.

It’s after the break. You’ll find some new screens there too.

It’s out this month.

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Paramount’s put out first proper shots of its XBLA Warriors remake. Get them after the break.

The game’s out this summer as part of the film’s 30th birthday celebrations.

Looks like Streets of Rage with bad make-up. Bear in mind this is made by CTXM: it’s got nothing to do with Rockstar.

Solid date soon, hopefully.

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Mistwalker’s Hironobu Sakaguchi has said in his latest blog update that the Japanese studios’ next game will be announced this year.

There’s a few vague play details in there as well:

Planning to basically put importance on having seamless control of the overall direction of the game, mixed with CG spectacle scenes. Controls will have a bit of a trick to it, while having a blend of RPG-type strategy and growth. Behaviors based on interaction with the situation around you. Wait, I’m not supposed to say more than this.

Sometime this year, it seems I’ll be able to announce what this new project is. During that time, we will try and post model artwork, behind the scenes stories, as well as introductions to staff who worked on the development. With all the different elements and staff putting their “heart and soul” into it, it feels different from projects until now, but in a good way. Please look forward to it.

No one knows what it is. Apart from the people working on it, obviously. You’d hope.

mistwalker is the developer of Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon. It canned a game, Cry On, in January.

Blimey. Richard Teversham, “senior director of business, insights and strategy for Xbox” in Europe, has left Microsoft for Apple, according to this MCV story.

Richard was one of the greenest members of the Xbox team. Lovely man. Had an Xbox-shaped bed.

“We can confirm that Richard Teversham, director of business, insights and strategy, has taken a new opportunity outside of Microsoft. A process is underway for recruiting his replacement,” Microsoft said in a statement.

“A 15-year veteran of Xbox and Microsoft, Richard has been an integral part of the success of Xbox in Europe and in the UK.

“We thank him for his considerable and valuable contributions to the Xbox business in EMEA during his time with us, and wish him every possible future success.”

Best of luck, Richard.

FFXIII producer Yoshinori Kitase has told Videogamer that the European version of FFXIII should release within a year of the game hitting Japan.

“Obviously we would like to release it over here as soon as possible,” he said. Traditionally the Final Fantasy numbered series, it takes about half a year between the release in Japan and the release in North America, and another half a year before it’s released in Europe. But we would like to minimise this, this time.

“For example we have already started recording English voices, and also the text localisation has been in progress, too. Normally we complete the Japanese version first, then move on to the US and EU versions, but this time there are some tasks that are happening simultaneously. So this time we’re hoping to release sooner than a year later than the Japanese release.”

That’s Christmas 2010, European people. If you speak English you’ll be able to get your US imports on sooner from the sound of it. If you don’t, looks as though you’ll just have to wait.

A round-up on The Street’s claimed that Apple may be looking to buy EA.

“Adami noted that there is chatter that Apple (AAPL Quote) is eyeing Electronic Arts(ERTS Quote) as a takeover target,” said David Tong, writing in this piece.

Stranger things have happened. In fact, this really wouldn’t be very shocking at all.

Thanks, Kotaku.

BioWare’s confirmed that the PC version of anticipated RPG Dragon Age: Origins won’t come with SecuROM or anything else like it.

From the game’s forums:

We’re happy to announce that the boxed/retail PC version of Dragon Age: Origins will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. In other words, the retail PC version of the game won’t require you to go online to authenticate the game for offline play. We have chosen not to use SecuROM in any version of Dragon Age that is distributed by EA or BioWare.

It’s out towards the end of the year for PC, 360 and PS3. Hit the link for the full thing.

Tripwire’s confirmed a Red Orchestra sequel, Heroes of Stalingrad. The game’s forums are now open here.

There’s no date on it as yet, but you can find out more in the May issues of PC Gamer in both the US and UK.

More from Blue.

Steam’s offering a free version of Battlestations: Midway if you pre-order its sequel, Battlestations: Pacific, for £30.

Pacific’s out on May 16, so it’ll give you something to do in the meantime. Watch 10 minutes of Pacific footage here.

There’s a first Red Steel 2 trailer after the break, showing that swords and cowboys do definitely mix.

The Wii exclusive uses Wii MotionPlus for your weapons, and looks very nice. Let’s the marketing translates into “fun”.

Take a look. It’s out later this year.

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Capcom’s about to release a large amount of downloadable PSone and PSP titles to download via PSN, saying today that up to 40 games could appear in the next few months.

“We’ll definitely be looking at a lot of titles that have things like Street Fighter and Resident Evil in the title,” Capcom’s Chris Kramer told Joystiq.

“We’re thinking about putting together a long list of the titles we’re looking at, and then releasing it on Capcom Unity and having people vote on them. Ultimately we’re looking at bringing between 20 and 40 titles to the PSN over the next several months.”

Cool cheese. PSP and 2009 appear to be enjoying a fine marriage. Hit the link for more.

Canadian NPD figures have shown a decline for the first time in seven years, with revenue falling 8.5 percent year-on-year for the first quarter.

“It may be tempting to attribute the decline in sales to the current state of the economy. However, on closer inspection, the first quarter of 2009 lacked the number of blockbuster titles that drove sales during the same period last year,” said NPD’s Matthew Tattle, pointing to Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Rock Band, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl as main Q1 2008 sellers.

There’s more on Gama, although there’s no actual revenue figure.

Guerrilla’s taking on all comers on the Killzone 2 Steel and Titanium maps today, starting at 10.00am PST.

You’ll need to be able to play on the US servers to get involved. Details on the PS Blog.