Monthly Archives: June 2009

Sony “should” roll out the long-promised expanded version of PSN next spring, according to this Fortune report.

The updated service will bridge Sony devices, such as phones and cameras as well as PlayStation products.

From the piece:

While Sony executives are short on the specifics, Hirai says the new service will overlay the backbone of the PlayStation Network but will be broader and more open. The service would make easier such things as putting images from a camera on TV, displaying and editing video, sharing with friends, and storage. Brand loyalists would be rewarded with incentives like discounts and premium services.

Stringer has intimated that the company is in a position to make acquisitions that will accelerate the effort, and Hirai says the first glimpse of the new service should be seen by next spring. “It’s now a matter of what all the services need to look like for each device, and coming up with a rollout plan,” says Hirai. “It’s like city planning here, and we can start small. We don’t need to build New York City overnight.”

Thanks, Kotaku.

Bungie Studios will be on hand at PAX 2009 this year, taking place September 4-6.

Public hands-on with Halo 3: ODST is pretty much a given, as the UK press has now been confirmed as getting to play it next month.

The developer will also appear in the “Prepare to Drop” panel on the show’s Friday afternoon.

More on IGN.

The great circle of life inextricably wheeled again this morning, Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett passing into the everafter while the Japanese videogames industry appeared to emerge from the ashes. So poignant. So fitting.

Here’s last week’s figures. We love you, Michael.

• DSi – 40,464
• PSP – 27,884
• Wii – 19,386
• PS3 – 10,359
• Xbox 360 – 6,734
• DS Lite – 5,531
• PS2 – 3,770

According to this Hollywood Reporter story, Columbia’s putting together a film based on Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

Kyle Ward’s – who’s already worked on the Kane & Lynch film, and is now attached to a Hitman 2 movie – is writing the adaptation.

It’ll be produced by Avi Arad, Charles Roven, Ari Arad and Alex Gartner. We don’t know who these people are, but adding their names makes us feel important.

There’s no date on it. More through there.

Michael Jackson died in LA last night, spawning one of the greatest Twitter-mong moments ever, as 10 million people all said, “Is Michael Jackson dead?” within three minutes of each other in one place on the internet. Good times.

Poor old Michael. The most important aspect of his death, though, is obviously how the music genius and sensational odd-ball affected videogames. Luckily, the Americans already have you covered.

IGN’s totted up Jackson’s game appearances in this piece, while 1UP’s has taken a “look back” at his “influence” on games as a whole.

MTV and GameDaily both have “retrospectives”. And very awesome they are, too.

You just know all the specialist car sites this morning are going, “Fuck. What about a list of the best Michael Jackson driving tracks?” All the specialist cooking sites will have their Michael Jackson recipe compendiums up by lunchtime.

Mr Jackson, we’re sorry you’re dead. Your music was amazing. We salute you.

Remedy’s managing director Matias Myllyrinne has been announced as the second keynote speaker for GDC Europe.

His keynote will be titled “From Max Payne to Alan Wake: Creating Intellectual Properties the Remedy Way,” and will focus on maintaining a small, independent company while remaining passionate about new IPs.

“Remedy revolutionized the action genre with Max Payne in 2001,” said Frank Sliwka, Vice President European Business Development of Think Services Game Group. “Their keynote exemplifies a success story of high quality games produced in Europe and enjoyed worldwide.

“We are honored to welcome Myllyrinne to the stage.”

Colonge will be THE place to be August 17-19 as GDC Europe and GamesCom will be taking the town by storm.

More over on GameSetWatch.

The US PSN update this week has two full games for PS3, the usual bit of add-ons with some Cuboid levels, and some High Velocity Bowling.

Playable Content for PSP gets full games Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Brothers in Arms D-Day.

Here’s the list courtesy of Joystiq. The usual Rock Band and Guitar Hero stuff is in there too after the break.

Playable Content

• Droplitz full game ($9.99)
• Mobile Light Force PS1 game ($5.99)
• The BIGS 2 demo (free)

Add-on Content

• High Velocity Bowling 60′s Surf Ball pack ($0.99)
• High Velocity Bowling Tiki Polynesian Ball pack ($0.99)
• LittleBigPlanet Summer Solstice costume (free)
• LittleBigPlanet Jon Burgerman sticker pack ($1.99)
• MotorStorm Pacific Rift Wombat Signature Livery pack (free)
• 3x Cross Edge packs (free)
• Disgaea 3 Class World Command Attack Mode ($3.99)
• Cuboid bundle pack ($4.99)
• Cuboid level editor ($3.99)
• Cuboid booster pack ($2.99)
• Rock Band DLC (continued)
• Guitar Hero World Tour DLC (continued)

More »

A possible release window for Tomb Raider number nine has been revealed of sorts, through Chris Conway’s Plaxo account.

The principal programmer for Pandemic listed that he had worked on AI and gameplay for “an unannounced project and a Tomb Raider game scheduled for release in 2010 or later” as the senior programmer.

While this is not too much of a shocker considering all the news regarding the next installment, here, here, here and here – it’s still rumor because the game has yet to be confirmed.

So, curb your enthusiasm for the time being.

More through the links.

Thanks, Tombraiderfanboy.

According to Activision CEO Mike Griffith, the company expects DJ Hero to appeal to a broader base of gamers than Guitar Hero due not only to the different music styles offered, but because the content has wider mainstream appeal.

“It’s certainly hitting a more mainstream and expanded audience from Guitar Hero,” he told GI.biz. “I think it will build on what Guitar Hero has been able to do. If you look at what our Guitar Hero franchise has achieved, we now have 15 million households that are active Guitar Hero users and we continue to satisfy them with more experiences and the chance to indulge in more music and gameplay.

“But outside of those 15 million household’s, there’s another 300 million that haven’t for one reason or another bought Guitar Hero yet. One of those reasons is we’re not reaching new genres and new music audiences in a way that DJ Hero allows us to accomplish.

“DJ Hero is going to be expansive to the franchise and be particularly exciting for Europe where that genre of music is arguably more important than it is elsewhere.”

The game is expected to ship October 27 for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

Last Month over Memorial Day weekend, Epic ran an “Old School” event for Gears of War 2, which saw some users having matchmaking issues.

The problems were reminiscent of matchmaking snafus right after the game launched, but according to Rod Fergusson, it wasn’t Epic’s fault this time.

“Our investigations have shown that the reported issue has to do with a very small minority of players with very poor network connections,” he told TeamXbox in a statement. “When they attempt to host a matchmaking party, they are not able to find matches due to their high network latency.

“We could increase the ping threshold to allow these players to host but it would have an overall negative effect on the global Gears 2 community as they would begin finding games with greater latency. So while this isn’t ideal for a tiny minority of players, it is much better overall for the majority of players. For the players that have this issue, the easiest answer is simply to join another player’s matchmaking party instead of trying to host one themselves.

“In terms of when this began, we’ve been making continuous optimizations to the matchmaking experience, and the perceived timing of recent changes with the “Old School” weekend is purely coincidental.”

So there ya go.

Threshold Entertainment’s Lawrence Kasanoff has filed a motion to block the sale of Midway to Warner Bros. in order to “preserve his IP rights” to certain Mortal Kombat characters and the right to create film and television projects based on the franchise.

Kasanoff, the producer for the Mortal Kombat films, claims he made the series what it is today and says characters Liu Kang, Sonya Blade and Scorpion are now recognizable names due to his golden hand.

In 1993, Kasanoff visited Midway… with an idea to launch the Mortal Kombat concept in a totally new direction. Specifically, Kasanoff proposed to develop… a full feature-length motion picture, a television series, and other productions. Midway was initially skeptical, as Kasanoff’s idea was revolutionary at the time.

The Mortal Kombat series, as it stands today, is far more a creation of Threshold and Kasanoff than of Midway. Midway’s creative input was almost entirely limited to the videogames. On their own, the videogames provided only minimal back-story and mythology, and only flat, “stock” characters… Kasanoff and Threshold were responsible for virtually all of the creative input that went into turning the videogame concept into a multimedia enterprise.

The suit estimates the MK franchise has accumulated approximately $4 billion over the years, and according to a Threshold company statement:

“[Kasanoff] is the Producer of all Mortal Kombat non video game media including the two blockbuster films, the television series, the animated series, platinum selling soundtracks, home video, Internet, CD-Roms and the live tour.”

More through GamePolitics.

Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has told Shacknews that the War Hero trademarks the company applied for this week do point to future projects.

Pitchford said the trademarks reveal “a bit about our interests in the development of another original intellectual property,” adding, “We haven’t even talked to any potential partners” in regards to War Hero.

“So we’re certainly not ready to talk about it publicly at the moment,” he said.

Bit more through there.

Rumors that Frontier’s long-in-the-works Elite 4 will be hitting PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 have surfaced.

During a lecture, co-creator of Elite and Frontier bossman David Braben, gave a slideshow presentation that revealed the company’s current projects which include Elite 4, The Outsiders, and other unannounced projects.

Braben stated last summer that the firm was looking at bringing the title to consoles, and that it had been in development for so long because of resource issues.

The Outsider, previously confirmed for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, is an open-world action game based around a police officer and has yet to receive a solid release date.

More through TheSixthAxis.

The American server for Darkfall will open on July 7 along with a patch full of new content, features,  PvE and PVP updates, and other goodies.

Players who are currently battling it out on the European server will have to wait three months after the American launch to transfer their characters.

“Characters from the European server can be cloned and moved without their possessions 3 months after the American launch,” wrote the game’s Tasos Flambouras on the official forum. “Certain restrictions and charges will apply, to be announced at a later date.”

To play on the US server, you have to buy the American Darkfall client. However, if you are a US player on the Euro server, you won’t have to – just get a transfer.

Thanks, MMORPG.

Bethesda’s Pete Hines says that the Operation: Anchorage DLC for Fallout 3 on PS3 is almost finished.

“It’s a different platform with a different way of doing things and it requires special attention and plenty of testing before it’s released,” he told Eurogamer.

“We are trying to put the finishing touches on it now, but as I said above it’s a different task than DLC on another platform, and so there are things we have to finish doing and testing before it’s done on PS3.”

After this bit is released, Hines revealed that the other packs will follow every 4-6 weeks.

More through the link.

Thanks, 1UP.

Devolver Digital is apparently involved in the Serious Sam: The First Encounter HD coming to Xbox Live, and it has been discovered by BigDownload that the company is owned by none other than Mike Wilson and Harry Miller.

You know, the guys from Gamecock and GodGames?

When contacted by the site, Wilson said he and Miller “along with a few other old friends” are involved in the venture.

“We’re basically acting as the production company for the XBLA game, since we are not an official MSFT publisher yet, and will be publishing the PC version of the games,” he said.

“Croteam owns the IP still since they had a G.O.D. deal, and are therefore able to work with us again on the new version(s).”

They’re baaaaack.

The European PSN updates are getting a bit depressing to tell you about, but you need to know about ‘em anyway.

This week, PSP users get Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and some Rock Band Unplugged content, along with PS3 getting Zuma.

Here’s the full thing courtesy of Joystiq.

Playable Content

• Zuma full game (£6.99)

Add-on Content

• LittleBigPlanet Summer Solstice costume (free — available for one week only)
• LittleBigPlanet Jon Burgerman sticker pack (£1.59)
• High Velocity Bowling Polynesian Ball pack (£0.79)
• High Veolocity Bowling Big Surf Ball pack (£0.79)
• MotorStorm Pacific Rift Wombat Signature Livery pack (free)
• Rock Band DLC (continued)
• Guitar Hero DLC (continued)

More after the break.

More »

Peter Edward, director of Home for SCEE, has broken down figures for the platform by region, demographic and content.

Without further ado, here it is courtesy of Gamasutra:

• Since launch in November 2008, Home claims to have 7 million users – of which 3 million are in Europe – who have downloaded 6 million items.

• Average Home session duration is 56 minutes, and while Sony expected 90 percent of its users to be 18-35 year-old males, the average is around 80 percent.

• During the three months leading up to the Watchmen film releases, 812,544 users watched an exclusive video with director Zack Snyder which amounted to 9.3 million minutes of view time. The Watchmen area of Home generated 3.2 million visits, and the Rorschach and Nite Owl costumes were downloaded 1.6 million times.

• 450,000 costumes were sold during the two-week Star Trek movie campaign, the video was watched 250,000 times.

• Red Bull’s Air Race game has been played by 873,136 users, which equals 2.5 million visits and 575,000 hours played with an average of 39 minutes spent on the game for the fist 5 months of launch. The game cost €110,000 to create with an estimated marketing value of €1.5 million.

• Users playing the Transformers puzzle games to net a free t-shirt for their avatars reached 125,000 with completion giving users a Trophy for their virtual spaces.

More through the link.

Independent retailers Chips and Grainger Games have small expectations for the PSP Go release in UK shops.

Both have yet to receive pre-orders for the handheld, and while Grainger plans to offer small quantities of PSP Go, Chips doesn’t see a reason to stock it unless customers specifically ask for it.

“From my point of view I’ve got to think, ‘Do I want to stock this?’ Right now I can’t see any justification for stocking it,”managing director Don McCabe told Edge. “Certainly I’m not getting the response from consumers. Normally when a new piece of kit is launched or announced I’ll get a multitude of people saying ‘As soon as that comes out I want one of those.’

“[Potential] first adopters are on the phone within seconds of it being announced and you’ve got your pre-orders. I don’t have a single pre-order for PSP Go at the moment.”

Chips currently has 30 stores in the UK,  and McCabe said that if the chain “suddenly gets a wealth of pre-orders”, he’ll reconsider his position.

Until then, the store has no intentions of stocking the product.

Tomodachi Connection, Fate/Unlimited, and Mind Exercises all three debuted on the top ten in Japan for the week ending June 21.

The top 30 best selling games for the week included 16 Nintendo DS, 7 Wii, 5 PSP and 2 PS3 titles. This was the first time that a PS2 title has not been in the Japanese top 30 in the console’s history, according to RPGsite.

Courtesy of Gamasutra, we have the top ten for you below.

1. Tomodachi Connection -Nintendo (DS) (102,000) (Debut)
2. Fate/Unlimited Codes Portable – Capcom (PSP) (34,000) (Debut)
3. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days -Square Enix (DS) (27,000)
4. Sloan to MacHale: Nazo No Monogatari – Level 5 (DS) (15,000)
5. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) – Capcom (PSP) (14,000)
6. Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth – Capcom (DS) (11,000)
7. Akira Tago’s Mind Exercises Vol. 1 – Level 5 (DS) (10,000) (Debut)
8. Wii Fit – Nintendo (Wii) (10,000)
9. Koei’s Shin Sangokumusou 5: Empires – Koei (PS3) (9,000)
10. Pokemon Platinum – Nintendo (DS) (7,000)