Monthly Archives: July 2009

The videogame market’s not only suffering from price fatigue, but music game fatigue as well, according to a report from Gamasutra.

Michael Pachter has issued a report which shows combined revenue from both Rock Band and Guitar Hero during February – June 2009 and it shows a 49 percent decrease in sales year on year, with Guitar Hero down 34 percent and Rock Band down 67 percent.

With discounted hardware and over 20 SKUs on the market, both have plenty of merchandise available to gamers, with the Guitar Hero franchise leading in that area.

Activision Blizzard has released over a dozen Guitar Hero titles from including the handheld version along with themed expansions. Guitar Hero 5 is currently scheduled for release in Fall 2009 and a Van Halen-centric one later in the year and of course, loads of new DLC through console services.

Currently, with different packaging and offerings, there are seven Rock Band titles on consoles or handhelds with The Beatles: Rock Band due September 2009. Harmoix tends to focus on DLC more so than new SKUs entering the market.

That’s loads of plastic peripherals folks.

More through Gamasutra.

Dave Jones has told Videogamer that his main goal for APB, is for it to last for five to ten years.

“That’s ultimately the goal. The method I looked at, the kind of ideas I looked at was more like Counter-Strike,” he said at Develop. “There is a game which kept people playing for years and years and years, but from a very, very different perspective – just a great, great, great core combat game. I want more of what Counter-Strike did coupled with the social stuff that Counter-Strike didn’t do. You couldn’t even have a clan in Counter-Strike for heaven’s sake. People used to improvise by adding it to the end of their names.

“They had to try and organize when to meet up, try and form groups, they effectively ran their own server then and invited players to it – all that stuff Counter-Strike players were doing, they had to try and do off their own back.

“We’ve taken all that and said, ‘make it from the beginning’. You get all the social stuff you get from World of Warcraft. The difference is in the core gameplay. APB is a hell of a lot of fun to play, because I do play it day upon day upon day upon day upon day. We have progression as well – it’s visual. We have leagues and stats and achievements. But at the end of the day, after playing World of Warcraft for a night I don’t sit back and go, wow! That was an amazing fight I was just in. It’s not really about an amazing fight. It’s about tactics and just getting through stuff.

“I want people in APB to come out after a couple of hours and say, wow we had some amazing fights with that squad and that clan, and that guy was dominating tonight.”

More through the link.

BioWare, EA and Dark Horse Comics announced announced a new comic book series based on Mass Effect today.

Mass Effect: Redemption tells the tale of the events leading up to Mass Effect 2 which opens with Commander Shepard having mysteriously gone missing and left to fight for survival. Lead writer Mac Walters is penning it along with John Jackson Miller scripting it with Omar Francia providing the artwork.

Planned as a four-parter, it will land in retail January 6, 2010.

Press release is below the fold.

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Tripwire Interactive has relayed that it will release both free and paid DLC content for Killing Floor.

The first bit to be released will be a free map called Foundry with and AK-47 and a Katana in the “Heavy Metal” pack.

The map itself is called Foundry and will add four new playable characters.

No word yet on price or release date.

Microsoft has announced that Xbox Dashboard update hit August 11.

Loads of stuff is included: Games on Demand, improved Netflix performance with Movie Parties, Avatar Awards, Avatar Marketplace, game ratings, new Friends list, etc.

Facebook, Last.fm and Twitter will arrive in the fall.

If you are lucky, you can get a preview of it before it arrives.

More through Joystiq.

Final Fantasy IV will land on Japan’s Virtual Console August 4 for 900 Points.

Final Fantasy I through III are already available on the Virtual Console in Japan.

Still no word on when it will be released elsewhere.

Via Joystiq.

Sega has officially announced Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll for Winter 2010.

The Wii Balance Board will be used, it’s a party game, and that is about all Sega has revealed.

There is a video posted of it after the break, via GoNintendo.

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Disney has announced that it plans to release a graphic novel based on the Prince of Persia movie.

It is to be penned by the creator of Prince of Persia, Jordan Mechner and Todd McFarlane has created the exclusive art to be featured on the cover and the interior art in the 128-page novel includes more talented names in comics.

It features six original stories, is a prequel to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time film and will be released in April 2010 in hardcover and paperback with a 125,000 first print run.

More through the press release after the jump.

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Steven Masters, lead designer for Splinter Cell: Conviction, has told Kikizo that the developers “could absolutely” create the game for PS3, but it was strictly a business decision to make it an Xbox 360 exclusive.

“Well that’s purely a business decision. That’s it.” Masters told Kikizo. “Ubisoft as a company now has a lot of experience with PS3. Our processes, tools, techniques are very well-developed – we could absolutely execute on the PS3 if we had the opportunity, but like I said it was a business decision.”

Game’s out for PC and Xbox 360 in October.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves will arrive in the U.S. on October 13.

The final box art and loads of pre-order specials have also been revealed with Amazon.com, GameStop, Game Crazy and BestBuy.

Europe gets it October 23.

Two words: Golden Guns!

More through Kotaku.

Fallen Earth has announced that its self-titled MMO-FPS will be available via digital distribution and through retailers September 9.

The game combines first-person shooter games with character advancement and strategy elements.

Taking place in the Grand Canyon as mankind teeters on the edge of extinction, players must choose to rise above the hardships or embrace the surrounding destruction.

“We’ve been working to create a different type of MMO-something gritty and challenging that will give players an exciting and immersive gaming experience,” says Jessica Orr, product manager for Fallen Earth. “The Fallen Earth team is looking forward getting the game in the hands of our current and future fans.”

You can get more details on the game after the break in the lovely press release.

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Codemasters Online and NetDevil announced today that Jumpgate: Evolution has reached 250,000 Beta sign ups in North America and Europe.

“This is a fantastic achievement for everyone involved with Jumpgate: Evolution,” said Codemasters VP David Solari.

“We have received overwhelming support for the game since the commencement of its Beta sign up last year and our fans have been clamoring for the Beta. We expect our fans to agree that it was well worth the wait.”

The MMO is set in space and promises loads of combat with an ever-expanding universe.

For more information on Jumpgate or to sign up for Beta, hit the link.

Croteam boss Roman Ribaric won’t be drawn on any specifics about Serious Sam 3 as it’s “too early.” However, he will say that the cartoony look of old has been dropped.

“”I can’t yet reveal any new features on Serious Sam 3, as it’s still too early,” Ribaric told Eurogamer.

“However, I believe Serious Sam fans would want to hear the following two things. First, Serious Sam 3 will play like the original Serious Sam. And second, we’ll leave the cartoony look behind.

“As for standing up to other games: simply, if it’s good to play, it’s good to play,” He went on.

“Serious Sam games belong to their own unique fast-paced FPS genre and should best be compared to previous Serious Sam games.”

Serious Sam 3 has no date or platforms as yet.

Warner Bros. has announced that the Where the Wild Things Are game based on the Spike Jonze movie adaptation will land in stores come October.

It will coincide with the movie’s release, and is to be made available for DS, PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360.

Amaze Entertainment is handling the console versions, and WayForward Studios the DS version.

Thanks, 1UP.

Ex-president of Blizzard North, David Brevik, will head up Gargantuan Games – part of Gazillion Entertainment – and his first job will be to oversee the development of the Marvel Universe MMO.

Blizzard North is best known for the first two games in the revered Diablo series.

BigDownload also points out that Brevik will be attending this week’s ComicCon and will be in an MMO panel on Thursday.

Bit more through the link.

A chart featuring the best-selling Xbox Live titles for June 15 through July 5 has been compiled, courtesy of GamerBytes.

Looks like people really love Magic the Gathering and Castle Crashers.

See how well your favorite title did below during the week of June 15.

The rest are over on  Gamasutra.

Week of June 15

1. Magic the Gathering
2. Castle Crashers
3. Sonic 3
4. Worms
5. Sam & Max STW
6. UNO
7. Cell Factor
8. Peggle
9. Hasbro FGN
10. Rocket Riot

id Software’s John Carmack has been discussing multiplatform trade-off’s with GameInformer and has said that putting RAGE on 3 DVD’s on Xbox 360 is a problem as the nature of the game won’t really allow for it.

“We would love to set the thing up where it filled one Blu-ray disc versus three DVDs, which is about the right mix, but the game just…we can’t cut it into a third like that,” he said

“We can cut it into two pieces. We’ve got two large wastelands on there. We just couldn’t make an arbitary cut.”

However, Carmack forsees no problem with Doom 4 being multi disk.

“Doom 4 is being set up so that it’s almost certainly going to be cut up to 3 DVDs versus one Blu-ray. At least they’ve got the ability because of the way it’s structured.” concluded Carmack.

Carmack also compared development on the two consoles:

“There’s a little bit more theoretical raw performance on the PS3, so we’ve got a little bit more headroom.

“The 360 was easier to certainly to get to where we are now. More sweat equity had to be put into the PS3.”

Bethesda has sent us over some lovely screens from Mothership Zeta, the upcoming DLC for Fallout 3.

It lands August 3.

New weapons include the Alien Atomizer, Alien Disintegrator and the Drone Cannon and new outfits will be available as well.

The add-on will cost 800 MS points or $9.99 for XBL and Windows.

A gallery is posted after the jump.

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Cryptic has put out ten, brand spanking new screenshots of Champions Online and Massively took up the mantle and hosted them.

The superhero MMO is shaping up very nicely indeed, we reckon.

Shame there’s no date yet.

Two movie posters for the Prince of Persia movie have landed on the internet.

We will reserve judgment and let you do all the critiquing.

D’toid has ‘em.

Movie’s out in May 2010.