Monthly Archives: June 2009

Aiming for top products on Wii, gaming’s biggest living room console, is a no-brainer, EA boss John Riccitiello has told Gamasutra.

“It’s the first time a third party has been number one on the Wii platform two weeks in a row,” he said of the success of EA Sports Active since launch.

“The number one platform is expanding the market, and growing. Having a lead position there seems like an obvious thing for us to do.”

The exec said EA’s cracked the Wii formula, something that’s proven evasive for many third-parties.

“I think we realized what it takes to be successful on the platform,” he added.

“No ports and pushes – do things that optimize against the controller system inherent in the wand and nunchuk.”

More through there.

Microsoft’s released the first proper details on Crackdown 2, confirming the game has a single-player experience of some form.

The sequel, announced last week in Microsoft’s press conference at E3, is to have four-player co-op and competitive multiplayer for up to 16 people.

The company said earlier that Crackdown 2 “takes multiplayer gaming to unprecedented levels for the ultimate co-op and competitive multiplayer experience”.

Get pumped. It’s out next year.

This isn’t looking good for the single-player massive. Microsoft just put out some Crackdown 2 blurb that only makes mention of online and multiplayer features.

The full thing:

The sequel to the award-winning vertical-world adventure, Crackdown 2 is the ultimate open-ended world action experience, only available on Xbox 360. The game lets you be judge, jury, and executioner for a huge, fully explorable city. Crackdown 2 takes multiplayer gaming to unprecedented levels for the ultimate co-op and competitive multiplayer experience, providing you and your friends with the complete freedom to explore, destroy, and play your way as you restore justice and peace to Pacific City—by any means necessary.

The game was rumoured to be online-only earlier this year.

We’ve asked for comment. It’s out in 2010.

Visceral GM Glen Schofield has told VG247 that the EA studio, currently developing Dante’s Inferno, isn’t blind to the fact that the Divine Comedy is a trilogy.

Inferno is followed by Paradiso and Purgatory, “so there’s at least room for two more [games] after that,” said the exec, talking in a phone interview before E3.

“And that could take you quite a long time.”

Schofield was quick to add, however, that sequels are currently far away from the Inferno team’s thoughts.

“We’re not going to make any other games unless this one comes out fantastic, and that’s the same thing with any game that we’re working on,” he said.

“We focus, focus, focus on this one, knowing that there are opportunities to make others, but nobody’s thinking about them right now.”

Dante’s Inferno releases for 360, PS3 and PSP next year.

The EU PS Blog is inviting questions on PSP Go, to be answered by product managers this Friday.

Here’s one: how much is it going to cost in the UK?

Get to it.

Epic’s Shadow Complex is going to be big for Xbox Live, service boss Marc Whitten told GI at E3. Bigger than big. The biggest in world history.

“Shadow Complex will be one of the biggest games ever,” he said.

“I don’t mean biggest in size, but biggest in terms of quality, depth, story, that we’ve ever seen.”

The game, announced during Microsoft’s E3 press conference last week, isn’t the only jewel in Live crown this summer, Whitten was quick to add.

“Marvel Vs Capcom is another one a lot of people have been asking about,” he said. “So I’m actually really excited about that line-up.”

Full interview through there.

Capcom’s confirmed on its site that Lost Planet 2 will release this “winter” in Japan.

Just a hunch, but you may want to be thinking “Q1 2010″ if you live west.

Thanks, Siliconera.

UK Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw said in a question and answer session on “Digital Britain” yesterday that more tax breaks are in the pipeline for the UK industry.

“We do recognise the importance of the video games industry to the British economy,” he said.

“Research and development tax credits are available for the industry, and we are looking at introducing further tax breaks.”

Bradshaw also said that he’s now tackling the “issue of classification” regarding games, and is preparing to make “other announcements” on the trade in general.

Read the full transcript through there.

Microsoft’s game creation tool Kodu, which in some circles has been incorrectly compared to Sony’s LittleBigPlanet, is launching on Xbox Live’s Community Games service by the end of June, according to a blog post from one of the game’s developers.

“I’m doing final content passes as we get ready for release, which is the end of June. (Exact day TBD),” the developer said.

The tool, originally shoved under the bus that is gamer scrutiny at this year’s CES, is meant to serve as an introductory course to game programming. It uses simple visual cues to make game creation fun for the whole family, or so we hear.

Are you excited? Game programming is a mystery no longer. The magician is finally letting us look up his sleeve. Really, what more can you ask for?

Criterion’s posted a long video of Burnout Paradise’s Big Surf Island, showing the nine new cars from the expansion as well as a good look at the island itself.

You get an island-specific license, don’t you know. Hit the link. Mind you don’t trip over the “wows”.

The large piece of DLC hits the game this week, priced 1000 MSP/$12.99/€12.99/£9.99.

Alan Wake was announced way back in the dark, VG247-less year of 2005, yet it only recently got saddled with a 2010 release window. What’s the deal with that? Joystiq recently confronted developer Remedy with that very question, which, obviously, gave rise to an answer.

“Remedy is not a factory,” lead writer Sam Lake said. “We take our time and try out different things until we feel have found the right combination and a good balance for the game.”

“We have been in the fortunate position where we’ve had time to do research and do prototypes … keep the quality bar high and explore, until we find the right combination of different elements. Things have evolved along the way. This is an action game, but there is a lot of variety,” Lake also noted.

Alan Wake will finally rise and shine sometime during spring 2010. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, people. Just suffer through a long winter full of awesome games and you’re there. Come on, now. You can do it.

The new FFXIII shots Famitsu just posted are awesome, but that motorbike’s just impractical. You just stretched the our suspension of disbelief to the limit, Square.

It’s out this “winter” in Japan, early 2010 in the US and maybe next year in Europe. Thanks, GoOnline.

The Sims 2′s topped the US PC chart for the last week in May, with the game likely to be replaced by the now-launched Sims 3 next week.

Tough at the top. Thanks, GI.

1. The Sims 2: Double Deluxe
2. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
3. Spore
4. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest
5. World of Warcraft
6. Empire: Total War
7. Reel Deal Slots Adventure
8. Civilization IV: Complete Edition
9. The Sims 2: Apartment Life
10. Left 4 Dead

Three Duke Nukem games are to release for iPhone, 3D Realms’ Scott Miller has told Shacknews.

“We have several more iPhone games on the way, including three unannounced Duke Nukem games,” said the developer.

3D Realms was recently forced to ditch Duke Nukem Forever after the game’s 12-year development ran into funding issues.

Remember Qore episode 13? The one that leaked the week before E3 with all the PSP Go info? It’s been delayed to include some… PSP Go info.

The following was sent out to Qore subs yesterday:

Dear Qore Subscriber,

As mentioned on the PlayStation blog on Friday, we are experiencing a delay in the release of Qore Episode 13. We are currently revising the content of the episode to bring you the most up-to-date information. With all of the great PSP (PlayStation Portable) content announced at E3, we are planning to have a full feature story on the PSP go in a future episode. We apologize for any inconvenience.

As a Qore subscriber, you are a valued part of our PlayStation Community. We appreciate your patience as we work to get Episode 13 to you.

Sincerely,

PlayStation Network

Shouldn’t be too long. What’s left to say?

PSP-3000 will sell alongside PSP Go because there’s still an opportunity to sell disc-based portables, SCEE president Andrew House told GI at E3.

“The decision to push [PSP Go] alongside PSP 3000 is absolutely the right one because there’s still a very large, untapped market there for a traditional, package media-based portable gaming,” said the exec.

“This allows us to extend into other areas. The beauty is that we can respond to consumer’s tastes and balance the two platforms against each other.

“There’s a price point difference between them and we’ll monitor that as we go along.”

PSP Go was announced at a splendid $250/€250 launch price at E3.

There’s a fill interview through there.

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia said in a note yesterday that chatter’s pointing to a summer price cut for PS3.

“Industry sources indicate Sony is planning a $100 price cut on the PS3 in mid-August, just prior the launch of Madden (8/18) and the start of the back to school shopping season. This will naturally be a positive for the industry,” she said.

Hey, everyone! Gamescom’s on in mid-August!

Thanks, Industrygamers.

Gearbox told Shacknews at E3 that definitely-not-cel-shaded shooter Borderlands is heading for an October release.

The game was looking great at the show, so this is good news, Ringo.

Lots more on this soon.

SCEA’s Peter Dille told Kotaku at E3 that, while he expects the press conference showing of the company’s PS3 motion tech to be indicative of the final product, what was shown is a “prototype”.

“We’re announcing the technology, not the product or game,” he said.

“He also wanted people to know the form factor of the wand is a prototype. I think it is representative of what the product will include. In other words, it will have buttons. It will have the ability to have a trigger if you’re having that style of game.”

No date, price or name was given to the motion system, which was shown to be based around the Eye camera and a wand.

More through there.

Kotaku’s posted some Aliens Vs Predator screens which clearly aren’t, but look wicked all the same.

There are a few old ones in there, but what the hey. It’s out next year for PC, PS3 and 360.