Monthly Archives: June 2009

The immediate growth opportunity for Wii exists in capturing the core gamer, Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime has told CNET.

“The near-term opportunity is the consumer who owns an PS3 or an Xbox 360 and has been bad-mouthing Wii to their friends,” he said, talking at E3.

“We can reach that consumer with games like The Conduit or Tiger Woods with Wii Motion Plus.”

Fils-Aime said that players will go onto buy other first-party Nintendo games once they’d made the plunge.

“We think we win over the Halo audience with something like The Conduit, a multi-player, online, shooting experience, or Dead Space Extraction,” he added.

“And you know what? Once those people buy into Wii, they’ll go buy Mario Kart or Wii Fit Plus.”

Don’t worry, though. There’s plenty in that interview about going after non-gaming consumers. Read for the Lord.

Germany’s 16 Interior Ministers asked the Bundestag to ban production and distribution of violent video games in the country, and are hoping the new sanction goes into effect before elections take place on September 27.

The ban comes on the heels of the recent school shootings that have occurred in the country, most notably the Winnenden shooting on March 11.

If passed, not only would German consumers not be able to purchase the games at retail, but German developers like Crytek would be required by law to outsource development of any game the law deems violent.

Or move its headquarters to another country.

More over on GamePolitics.

A group calling themselves L4D2 Boycott (NO-L4D2) has formed over on Steam and is asking people to forgo purchasing Left 4 Dead 2 because it feels the original needs to be concentrated on first.

So far, there are 11,022 members and here are the reasons why each member is boycotting the sequel:

• Significant content for L4D1 was promised, and never delivered
• Valve put little faith in L4D1 since they almost certainly started working on L4D2 right after release
• The fact that L4D2 is nearly identical to L4D1 will decimate the community for both games
• The announced date is not nearly enough time to polish content or make significant gameplay changes
• The new character designs seem bland and unappealing so far
• L4D2 is too bright to fit in with L4D1′s visual aesthetic
• The fiddle-based horde music is extremely disliked, though the differently orchestrated music is otherwise welcome
• L4D2′s release will result in a drop in quality and frequency for L4D1 content, even compared to before
• The community has lost faith in Valve’s former reputation for commitment to their games post-release

We’re staying out of this one.

Hit the link to check it out.

Black Bean Games has released a demo on Xbox Live for Superstars V8 Racing.

Gold members only for now, but Silver members will get their chance on June 12.

Some screens for the game can be found on LvL2 Gamer.

Joystiq has put a up a side-by-side video comparison of the leaked Trico footage with what was shown at E3 for The Last Guardian.

We have posted it below.

Enjoy.

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Telltale was on-hand at E3 this week and handed out new screens for the new Wallace an Gromit adventure set to launch later this month.

The next episode is called Muzzled, and had the stars visiting a carnival and there is an automated ice cream truck in there too. Not sure what it does, but we will soon find out.

D’toid has loads of screens for it. You should check ‘em out.

Bohemia Interactive is giving gamers a chance to win ArmA II via a new Flash game over on the official site.

The game puts you in control of a military unit where you must equip your men and use an overhead map to guide them to what you are targeting.

Players with the top two scores win a digital copy of ArmA II.

Go try your luck.

Game’s out on Steam later this month.

Thanks, BigDownload.

Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference is next week and rumor has it that a new iPhone coming in July is to be announced, and it will contain a 3D graphics chip to support better visuals.

Another rumor regarding the phone is the integration of a new, faster high-speed network which would make it easier for developers of online multiplayer games, along with increased Bluetooth support.

While a faster network would mean that applications and websites would download faster, the fact that Apple is hiring its very own band of in-house developers just adds meat to the rumor.

Next week should shed some light on this.

Thanks, D’toid.

E3 was a very busy week for all involved whether they were at the show or not. Loads of games were unveiled, peripherals, and tons more stuff happened.

MMOs were there too though, and while the majority didn’t make the front page, loads of stuff pertaining to the genre happened or is going to happen.

Find out exactly what after the jump.
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Microsoft has posted a job listing for a Technical Art Director to work at its UK studios.

The position will focus on “character centric issues, including manipulation of motion capture data, facial animation creation/capture and rigging being specific interest areas.”

Whoever is hired will likely be working in the same space as Lionhead.

Good luck to whomever gets it.

More over at OXM.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is getting bug fixes for the multiplayer beta.

One of the fixes will stop the PS3 from automatically restarting once the beta is exited out of, and the matchmaking problem will be fixed as well.

The limits on Deatmatch have been raised from 25 to 50 and the looting limit has gone from 3 to 5, both of which helps extend the play time.

Great news if you play the beta.

More over on PS3-sense.

Shigeru Miyamoto was spotted visiting the Sony booth at E3 checking out the new PSP Go.

Later on, Peter Molyneux gave him a demo of Project Natal and Milo.

This is really not earth-shattering news, but it’s Saturday, and everyone pretty much likes Miyamoto so why not.

More over on D’toid.

Infinity Ward has told MTV that the reason Call of Duty was dropped from the title for Modern Warfare 2 was because the game is a sequel and not a new campaign.

“This is a direct sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” said community manager Robert Bowling. “That is what we are trying to get across to our audience. It’s not just another one in the Call of Duty franchise.

“This has never happened in Call of Duty before. They’re typically their own campaigns and totally unrelated to the previous one. This one, is indeed a direct sequel and we just want to make that clear.”

So there you have it.

More through the link.

Wii users looking forward to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles:The Crystal Bearers should be happy to know that Square Enix plans on continuing the franchise – providing this one does well.

When the game’s producer Toshiyuki Itahana was asked by RPGsite if fans can expect more single-player story driven titles in the future, he pretty much said yes.

“We are going to keep making Crystal Chronicles titles,” he replied. “If this one does well, we would like to make one in a similar style alongside new multiplayer FF:CC games as well.”

The game is expected sometime before the end of the year.

Hit the link for the full interview.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

If you like wrastlin’ games, THQ has announced that WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010 will land on shelves this fall.

John Cena, Undertaker, Randy Orton, Edge and Rey Mysterio are the cover models and it will be made available for DS, PSP, PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

THQ notes that the franchise has sold 47 million units worldwide since it’s inception in 1999.

GameStop says November 10 is the tentative date.

Press release after the break.

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Tecmo introduced a new title coming to PSP at E3 called Undead Knights, and it’s basically about a murdered knight seeking vengeance on the King and Queen who betrayed him.

Players will take turns as the knight, his wife and his brother as they revive the dead to do your bidding.

It’s a third-person affair with zombies not only fighting but helping the character solve puzzles and allowing themselves to be used for all sorts of things. Like ladders and projectiles.

Heavily inspired by Evil Dead, the game supports up to four-players in multiplayer mode.

No release date as of yet.

Loads of screens are over on Eurogamer, and a preview is posted on IGN.

Section 8 will allow Xbox 360 users to set up and create dedicated servers.

According to producer Robert Siwiak, this is the first game on the console to do this.

The application will be downloaded on to player’s PC and helps them turn it into a dedicated server for the game. TimeGate will also be hosting some and the game will support multiplayer matches with up to 32 players.

It’s expected sometime this fall.

Via Joystiq.

Sports and web celebrities got hands-on time with Project Natal at E3 this  week, and we have the YouTube videos posted below the break.

Sugar Ray Leonard, Eric Dickerson,Willie Gaut, Felicia Day and Paul Rodriguez Jr. all seemed impressed with the new technology.

Glad they had fun. Go watch.

Thanks, Psychotext.

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The debuts of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, and Gyakuten Kenji helped boost sales of DSi in Japan this week almost doubling the numbers from last week.

All platforms were up over all, with PSP coming in second and Wii third.

The list and lovely pie chart are courtesy of Kotaku.

• Nintendo DSi – 65,537
• PSP – 32,251
• Wii – 17,810
• PlayStation 3 – 12,427
• Nintendo DS Lite – 7,519
• Xbox 360 – 4,857
• PlayStation 2 – 4,120

Nintendo has sent out a list of games to be released for Wii and WiiWare from now until the end of the year.

There are a few TBD ones thrown in there, but it’s pretty much every first and third-party title expected to release on the console.

Kotaku provided the list, and we have it posted for you after the break.

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