Monthly Archives: July 2009

EA will host a panel on homophobia in videogame culture sponsored by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) this Saturday.

Joining Electronic Arts will be the Entertainment Software Association, GayGamer.net, Linden Labs, and Microsoft.

Discussions include how to best “provide safe spaces for LGBT people online”, “how to ensure the best policies are in place to prevent virtual attacks against LGBT people” and “how to educate the users of online communities about the effects of homophobia.”

The event is being held at EA’s Redwood Studios from 11am-1pm and is open to the public.

Via Shack.

Sega has announced that Bayonetta will be released in Japan on October 29.

Customers who pre-order the game over there will receive “Rodin’s Selection,” a soundtrack CD with content sounds hand-picked by “Rodin” – Bayonetta’s parnter – packaged with a pamphlet inside a case which resembles the menu from the bar he runs in the game.

An exact date has not been provided for US or Europe, but GameStop says it’s out September 1, and Play lists it for October 23.

Hopefully, we will get date confirmation soon.

Thanks, 1UP.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 will have online co-op, according to Famitsu.

Team Mission is what it’s called, and you can play through with a real live partner or a CPU controlled ally.

Each mission can be finished in one sitting, and most end with an epic boss battle.

It’s out October 1 in Japan.

Thanks, 1UP.

Sony does not want people sharing PSN identifications and passwords to grant items in PlayStation Home to friends.

This is against the Terms of Service agreement, apparently, and Sony will start doling out punishment to those who continue.

“As many of you are already aware, there are members of our community who are requesting your PSN identification and password to grant select items in Home,” said community manager CydoniaX on the official forums.

“We would like to remind you that the Home staff will never ask you for your password, or any other personal information in Home. The members of the community doing so are participating in activities that violate our terms of service. This is wrong, illegal, and most definitely NOT OK, and we will be handling these offenses accordingly.

“Please be assured that we know who has done what. We know that many of you who participated in this are also some of our most dedicated and enthusiastic Home users and might not have been fully aware of the ramifications of your actions.

“That said, appropriate actions will be taken against individuals violating our terms of use.”

Via PS3news.

Dave Jones revealed during Develop that Realtime World’s was ‘keen’ to work on Crackdown 2, but Microsoft wanted to see how the first one turned out before letting the firm loose.

Unfortunately, the development team was busy with APB by the time Microsoft decided to move forward with the franchise, thus Ruffian Games got the job.

At least fans can be placated knowing it’s being made, we reckon.

More through CVG.

Dorian Bloch, GfK Chart-Track director, expects the digital download market for PC to be worth over $1 billion in 2009 thanks to services like Direct2Drive, Steam, and Metaboli.

Bloch estimates the market accumulated close to $600 million last year, with publisher’s relishing the idea of including sales number’s in GfK Chart-Track’s data.

“This is a huge business,” said Bloch at Develop. “The key thing for me in this is that these publishers support me in what I do and they want their sales included in the charts.

“Sega has been asking us, ‘when can we include our Football Manager sales in our charts?’ We’d like to include them, but I can’t just include one publisher’s sales, I need a balanced approach for doing that.”

Bloch said that the only way to include digital sales in the company’s data, is for a wider selection of publishers to start providing sales statistics.

Thanks, GI.biz.

Blitz has confirmed to Eurogamer that Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao will arrive on Xbox Live in August and will run you 1200 MS Points ($15/£10.20).

This the the stereoscopic-3D enabled title that wowed us at GDC.

Hopefully you have a television that can offer 3D play and viewing. If not, it’s still a nice looking Kung-fu action game.

While speaking at develop regarding thatgamecompany’s flOw and Flower, Jenova Chen told attendees that games need more mature content by way of emotional engagement, not necessarily violence. Otherwise titles become nothing more than “toys”.

“I never see that sense of thrill any more in today’s games,” he said. “Yes, today’s games are more real and satisfying but the underlining mechanics are no different from toys. But the human brain likes information – it’s like a sponge that sucks up information and wants more all the time.

“Other pursuits are enjoyed by adults and not viewed as toys. As grown up gamer I don’t want to see the games I have been playing with love turn into toys. I think games need to have more mature content – but not like [Dead of Alive] or [Manhunt], but more sophisticated works.

“Games should make the player think and touch the gamer’s emotion. Gameplay needs to be like any other medium – it has to evoke all kinds of responses. Otherwise our industry will flatline.

“It shouldn’t be about one feeling – like excitement or happiness. Humans have a range of emotions, and life is stressful. Games should reflect that.”

Chen said developers could accomplish this by incorporating contemporary themes and approaching games as one would approach the creation of art.

“Most people in the games industry are jaded with this argument about games being art,” he admitted. “But it is important. I’m not an artist, I’m a computer science guy, and as game designer I think art is a component that is necessary.

“Look at the greatest artists and their works [Van Gogh, Tolkien and Alan Moore], they reflect the time and the world around them at the time.”

More over on Develop.

Media Molecule’s about to kick off its art keynote at Develop in Brighton. We’re covering it live after the break.

It’s co-founders Kareem and Mark in a talk titled “The Art of LittleBigPlanet”. Watch for hints on the franchise’s future. We hope.

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Guerrilla Games’ senior producer, Steven ter Heide, has said that the firm is far from finished with PS3, and while each release of Killzone has been for each Sony platform, it is not waiting around on PS4 to emerge.

“PlayStation 3 has a very long life ahead still, and we’re certainly not done developing for this platform,” Heide told The Gamer Access. “We still see enough opportunities to get better and pushing the platform even further.”

While refusing to comment on future projects, he did reveal that Guerrilla will continue to dish out the DLC for Killzone 2.

“Part of Killzone 2′s focus points was to allow players to create their own customized games as much as possible and to a large extent I think we have succeeded,” he said. “However, we are always looking at the way the community is responding to our designs and will take this type of feedback into consideration for future projects and possibly DLC.

“I cannot tell you specifics right now though.”

Thanks, CVG.

Sega has announced details for Valkyria Chronicles 2 in this week’s Famitsu but instead of coming to PS3 like its predecessor, it will launch for PSP.

The game’s producer, Shuntaro Tanaka, told the magazine that while not “necessarily bound to handheld systems in the future”, the game is coming to PSP “to allow a broader spectrum of users to discover and enjoy what makes Valkyria special.”

Taking place two years after the original in Gallia, with a new threat called the Gallia Revolutionary Army. The government’s military is minimal at best since the previous war, so students at a military school are called upon to take up the slack.

Using the same battle system as before, players will control military cadets, and the storyline is told through the eyes of 17-year-old Avan Hardence. There are also loads more missions than in the first iteration, along with more customization.

Game’s this winter in Japan, with a US and European date to be announced.

For more information, check out 1UP.

Peter Molyneux has been announced for GDC Europe where he will provide a lecture on ‘Choice: The Ultimate Game Mechanic’, using the Fable franchise along with Black & White to show “how choice can be a compelling game mechanic so long as player decisions have tangible effects on the game world.”

Interesting.

Also of note, it was announced that Half-Life 2 art director Viktor Antonov will speak about ‘Creating Visual Identity for Games’, by analyzing “the elements and tools that designers use to enhance storytelling and gameplay: space, architecture, light, color and stylization.”

Senior execs from Bruckheimer Games, Capcom, Disney, Foundation 9, Microsoft, Namco Bandai, and Paramount will also be on-hand for a panel called ‘Ask the Decision Makers: Find Out What Publishers Want And How To Get What You Want’.

GDC Europe and GamesCom takes place August 17-19.

More over on Gamasutra.

The Beatles: Rock Band was on hand at Abbey Road Studios last night to celebrate the newly remastered catalog for the famous group.

Staff from Harmonix and MTV performed a three-song set: “I Saw Her Standing There”, “I Am The Walrus” and “Here Comes The Sun” at Studio 2 before inviting attendees up to try it out.

Apparently, it was it was quite a sight to behold, and Eurogamer took some shots of the event.

Game’s out September 9.

Bill Gates has told CNET that Natal’s  not just for Xbox 360 or games only, but for “media consumption as a whole”, which means it can be used with Windows as well.

“Both the Xbox guys and the Windows guys latched onto that and now even since they latched onto it the idea of how it can be used in the office is getting much more concrete, and is pretty exciting,” he said.

“Using your body to control devices makes a lot of sense. I think the value is as great for if you’re in the home, as you want to manage your movies, music, home system type stuff, it’s very cool there, and I think there’s incredible value as we use that in the office connected to a Windows PC.

“So Microsoft research and the product groups have a lot going on there, because you can use the cost reduction that will take place over the years to say, why shouldn’t that be in most office environments.”

Guess this means that, eventually, Sally receptionist will be virtually filing documents in the future.

Via Joystiq.

During E3 2008, Microsoft revealed a South Park Xbox Live arcade game and neither hide nor hair has been seen from it since.

Enter Comic-Con, where the game will be shown by Microsoft along with Alan Wake, Gears of War 2: Dark Corners, Halo 3: ODST, Left 4 Dead 2, Shadow Complex, The Beatles: Rock Band and a new trailer for Splinter Cell: Conviction.

The reveal for all will take place July 23.

Kick ass.

Via D’toid (Xbox Evolved).

Remedy has apparently said that a PC version for Alan Wake may eventually come, but for now that decision rests solely with Microsoft.

Fansite BrightFalls(via Kotaku) says it has received a statement from Remedy which read:

Thank you for your continued interest in Alan Wake. It is accurate that we are currently working exclusively on the Xbox 360 version of Alan Wake. PC plans are currently open, and therefore it’s safe to say that at least a simultaneous launch with the Xbox version will not happen at this late stage. Remedy has a deep heritage in PC gaming and would love to see a PC version available to its PC followers, ultimately however this decision lies with our publisher.

Digital Spy claims to have received the same bit from Remedy as well, and we have sent an email over to confirm these statements.

If it proves to be true, it does not bode well for PC users.

Hopefully Remedy will get back with us soon.

Sony has announced that PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 games are coming to PSN starting today in Japan.

Bomberman ’94, New Adventure Island (Takahashi Meijin no Shin Boukenjima), Sengoku Mahjong, and Devil Crush are now available and cost  ¥600 ($6.40/£3.90) each.

The games are available for both PS3 and PSP and more titles are expected in the future.

So far, this is only for Japan, but hopefully it won’t be too long before the rest of us get them too.

Via Adriasang.

Ignition Entertainment says that despite King of Fighters XII getting a July date for the US, Europe will still have to wait until August 28.

Sorry ’bout that folks.

More over on Eurogamer.

Eurogamer France has a few FIFA 10 screens up on the site.

It was announced yesterday that it would be released worldwide for every thing under the sun October 2.

Go have a look at ‘em.

Here you go. Get the last 20 minutes from Dave Jones’ keynote from Develop this morning, in which he talked exclusively about APB, after the break.

There’s tons of new game footage in there, a look at the title’s ridiculous music system, everything he showed on character customisation and the new three-minute trailer. The one that made our hair stand on end.

Must-watch. It’s out early next year.

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