Monthly Archives: June 2009

Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter’s put the “rumours” to rest regarding the differences between the PS3 and 360 versions of Ghostbusters. The PS3 version’s resolution is far smaller, basically.

Here’s the PS3 game, and this one’s from the 360 version. The difference is a tad obvious.

Rich tells us the PS3 version runs at 960×540, while the 360 game hits 1280×720.

And that’s that.

Update: A Terminal Reality spokesperson told Joystiq yesterday: “For the record, the PS3 version [of Ghostbusters] is softer due to the ‘quincunx’ antialiasing filter and the fact we render at about 75% the resolution of the 360 version. So you cannot directly compare a screen shot of one to the other unless you scale them properly. The PS3 does have less available RAM than the 360 – but we managed to squeeze 3 out of 4 textures as full size on the PS3.”

Future US president Jonathan Simpson-Bint will leave the company on August 31, the exec’s announced, to form his own company.

He said in an internal note that he believed now was the right time to end his 18 years with the firm.

“I’ve never made any secret of my desire to start my own business and — like a lot of people — I believe that the current economic climate is actually a great time to start a business,” he said.

Future is actively searching for his replacement, Simpson-Bint wrote.

In the interim, an executive team — led by CFO John Sutton — will manage the company’s day-to-day operations.

More on Folio.

Rumor has it that Sony Online Entertainment has filed a US trademark for the titles EverQuest: Underfoot and EverQuest II: Sentinel’s Fate.

Curse found the information and granted, EQ fans are always up for a new expansion, but don’t take it as a sure thing until something is announced.

Not that the US Trademark site would lie or anything, just sayin’.

The SOE Fan Faire is next week so maybe we will know more then.

Thanks, Massively.

Qore Episode 13 will be released this Thursday on PSN.

Free bonuses this month include an inFamous Bad Karma theme, a Qore T-shirt for Home, and Spyro for both PS3 and PSP.

The one year anniversary issue also includes features on Fight Night Round 4, inFamous, and the Frag Dolls.

It looks as though the leaked PSP Go feature has been removed from it.

Can’t say we blame ‘em for the omission.

Yoshio Sakamoto has told Wired that it would be great if Retro Studios would come up with more ideas for the Metroid Prime series.

“With regards to the Prime series, if the team at Retro comes up with an idea that does bring a sequel to the series to fruition, I by all means encourage them to do that,” he said. “But I’m not directly involved with the Prime games.

“In terms of the Metroid series stories that I’ve told, the games that I’ve been involved in, I started with the NES Metroid and took it through Fusion.

“I’m hoping to tie the Super Metroid and Fusion stories together [with Other M], and until I do that I can’t think about what happens after Fusion, but if the concept does come to me I’d like to continue the story and see how far it can go.”

There’s always hope.

Thanks, CVG.

Take-Two head Strauss Zelnick needs his hits to be hittier, he’s confessed to VentureBeat.

“We announced it sold around 3 million units,” he said of BioShock. “I’d like to see a title like that sell 5 million units.

“That would make the difference for us. If you have four or five titles that are significantly successful, that will meaningfully change our profitability.”

BioShock 2 should out-perform the original, the exec said.

“BioShock got a lot of attention. It’s brand is huge. It won lots of awards. But it wasn’t as huge as a seller. I’m hopeful that BioShock 2 will benefit from the brand awareness, where people will play it even if they didn’t play the original.”

Zelnick added that Take-Two now has 16 games with sales in excess of 1 million units.

Full interview through there, including a pretty clear indication that you’re not going to see a GTA MMO any time soon.

A representative from Bethesda has confirmed to us that the version of Oblivion contained in upcoming bundle with BioShock is not the Game of the Year Edition.

Since both games were winners of the prestigious award, there was some confusion over whether Oblivion would include Knights of the Nine, Shivering Isles and the much loved Horse Armor.

But, no. It won’t. Bethesda said so.

Sorry folks.

Natsume’s VP of Operations, Graham Markay, has told Siliconera that the PS2 localization for Finny the Fish was how the publisher reeled in the rights to publish Afrika in the US.

“We have a relationship with Sony Japan,” Markay told the site. “You might remember Finny the Fish? That game was done by Sony Japan. So we licensed that game from them. We have a little bit of a history with their licensing department in Japan.

“It really fits with the Natsume theme. That is it’s non-violent, it’s in nature, you know animals, being one with nature, you’re taking pictures and not running around with a shotgun or a baseball bat. So it fits in the encompassing umbrella of what Natsume stands behind. Long answer short, it went from there and we got it.

Markay also revealed that the game will have a trophy system, which “wasn’t in the Asian release or Japanese release.”

Good to know.

Via Joystiq.

Microsoft says that it is too early to talk about whether Xbox 360 could offer OnLive functionality.

During E3, the company demoed Instant Streaming in 1080p for Xbox 360 and announced disc-free gaming coming to the console in August.

This led Kotaku to ask if an OnLive-like service was possible on 360.

“It’s nothing we’re ready to announce or talk about today,” Xbox Live VP John Schapperttold the site. “I think that a broadband-connected console to the television enables us to do many things. And, as the bandwidth continues to increase and latency continues to decrease, I think it opens up new avenues of possibility. And of course I’ve got 5000 smart people back home that will tell me all the crazy things that can’t be done.

“But there’s also just as many that can solve all these technological problems and deliver the amazing innovation that they’re doing. I think anything is possible but nothing that we’re going to announce right now. I think just delivering 1080p [without delay], something that no other device has done, is pretty amazing.”

More through the link.

Ubisoft has released a PC demo for Anno 1404/Dawn of Discovery. Versions include French, German, UK and US.

In the game, players step into the role of Prince William who is searching for new territories for his father King George.

The demo consists of chapters one and two along with continuous game mode.

Each level is restricted to one hour of playtime, levels are limited to Peasants, Citizens and Nomads, attainments are limited to level one only, and both online functionality and achievements are missing from the demo as well.

Dawn of Discovery is slated for release on June 23 for DS, PC and Wii.

Thanks, FileFront.

LittleBigPlanet will be getting a Druid Sackboy costume just in time for the summer solstice – well in the UK at any rate.

The little bearded fellow will arrive on PSN June 18 in Europe, and June 25 in North America.

It’s available for a limited time – one week only – so if you want it don’t delay.

2K Games and Bethesda have teamed up to offer BioShock and Oblivion in a bundle to be released on July 7 for PC and Xbox 360.

The PC version will run you $29.99 while the 360 version costs $39.99 – which is only a couple dollars more than buying both games used.

If there is anyone out there who has yet to play both games, this isn’t a bad deal.

Hit the jump for the press release.

[UPDATE] A representative from Bethesda just confirmed to VG247 that this is not the Game of the Year version of Oblivion that contains Knights of the Nine or Shivering Isles.

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Xbox Live is currently experiencing “technical issues.”

Here’s the notice Microsoft has put up for customers on the status page:

“Users may experience difficulties when attempting to use Marketplace and/or making purchases. We are aware of the problem and working to resolve the technical issues. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience.”

Hopefully it’ll be fixed soon.

Thanks, Shack.

Pandemic does not want you to think of The Saboteur as just another World War II game, because it doesn’t either.

It’s just the setting, more or less.

“We don’t even really think of our game as a WWII game, it’s the backdrop to our game which gives us arguably the best real world bad guys of all time,” lead designer Thomas French told D’toid. “Our game is big, over the top, and filled with lots of high action.

“Mechanically we’re so different from those games too and the ‘kitchen sink’ of tools we have for the player make for something that’s even different in just the sandbox genre as well. It’s also got a different world than people are used to seeing in this time period, full of grit, personal stories, and real characters.

“We wanted to use some historical events but not be too tied to dates so it wouldn’t keep us from telling the story and putting that in the foreground. Being a sandbox game where the player and can play parts of the story at their leisure we didn’t want to have to have events happen at particular dates that would limit the player’s freedom.”

Game’s out this year for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Game Developer Research has released its annual list of the Top 50 Developers according to the number of studios, sales from 2008 along with SkU numbers, and metacritic ratings for each.

The supplement to the Top 50 Developers countdown in Game Developer magazine surveyed 600 industry professionals from the magazine and Gamasutra, asking for opinions on more than 150 developers.

Those polled were also asked to “rate any relevant experiences with working with the companies in question.”

Top 25 is below, with the rest posted after the break courtesy of Joystiq.

1. Nintendo
2. Blizzard Entertainment
3. Ubisoft Montreal
4. Rockstar North
5. EA Canada
6. Konami
7. Valve Software
8. Epic Games
9. EA Tiburon
10. Treyarch
11. Hal Laboratory
12. Capcom
13. Traveller’s Tales
14. Bethesda Game Studios
15. Insomniac Games
16. Namco Bandai Games
17. EA Redwood Shores
18. Koei
19. Kojima Productions
20. Harmonix Music Systems
21. Media Molecule
22. Lionhead Studios
23. Vicarious Visions
24. Maxis
25. Neversoft Entertainment

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Konami has released a new map, character and reward mode for Metal Gear Online for players who purchased the SCENE Expansion Pack.

The new Icebound Inferno map is the Shadow Moses map from the first Metal Gear Solid game and features an Arctic Island with large snowfield and various buildings.

Players can also play as Old Snake and use the Octo-cam suit as a weapon, however, Old Snake will not become completely invisible when using the suit. Instead, he will automatically blend with the environment.

The download will also include an Auto Matching Reward mode giving the match winner more reward points than normal.

Press release is posted after the break.

More »

The My Xbox portion of Xbox.com was updated during yesterday’s downtime.

Users will notice that the layout has changed, shows your Avatar and friends’ Avatars and status on the main page, and pop-up windows allow you interact with your gaming pals.

If they are online or off, it gives you options like sending messages and checking gamerscores.

Not a massive change, but it looks a bit better and seems more user friendly.

Via Joystiq.

The Need for Speed: Shift video posted after the break gives players and look at the Driver Profile feature.

EA has said that the Driver Profile shapes how the player is perceived by other drivers according to racing style, personality, badges accumulated, success on the track and other factors.

Game’s out September 17 and 22 in the UK and US respectively.

Via Joystiq.

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EA plans to release a public demo for Madden NFL 10.

GameStop announced yesterday that an exclusive demo for the football title would be made available to those who pre-ordered, and some gamers felt a bit left out.

“We will also be issuing a demo via Xbox LIVE and PSN that features the Giants vs. Cowboys with 2 minute quarters,” a company rep told Shacknews. “The GameStop demo is exclusive in terms of content.

“For example, the GameStop exclusive demo features a rematch of Super Bowl XLIII featuring the Steelers vs. Cardinals with 5 minute quarters.”

The GameStop demo is expected in July, but there’s no word on when the public demo will be released.

Madden NFL 10 is expected to hit retail on August 14 for PSP, PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

Future Ads has revealed that casual gamers play online longer, but at the same time spend less money on gaming.

The survey conducted by Gamevance shows that 61 percent of 8,000 casual gamers polled spend longer periods of time now than a year ago with 80 percent of them having cut back on console purchases. Also, 77 percent feel console gaming is too expensive.

“While the flight from paid console games and the surge in casual online gaming has certainly been intensified by the recession, this data also suggests that gaming will follow the path of all media, whether newspapers, music or film: the inevitable migration to the more efficient, cost-effective, consumer-friendly online model,” said Jared Pobre, CEO of Future Ads.

“The extraordinary crossover between the casual and console markets, the fact that some online gaming sites are routinely attracting and monetizing millions of monthly users, and the growing consumer demand for online hubs where every kind of game can be played, suggests that powerful and profitable partnerships between console and casual companies may – and should – lie ahead.”

Full thing through the break.

Via Massively.

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