Monthly Archives: July 2009

Buzz producer Dan Croucher has told Develop attendee that player have contributed over 218,750 quizzes containing over 1.7 million questions to the game.

He said that the content could fill 350 standard-sized Buzz games on disc.

Croucher also believe that the recent Michael Jackson themed content appearing on the MyBuzz website proves that UGC is invaluable when creating personalized experiences. Thus, the company plans to release a smaller version Buzz on PlayStation Home this week, which will stream player-created questions from the website for PSN users.

More over on GI.biz.

Bethesda has announced that the Mothership Zeta DLC for Fallout 3 will land on August 3.

In it, your character finds a crashed alien ship over in the Capitol Wastelands and because of your morbid curiosity, the orbiting mothership decides to beam you up. To escape, you must find command central and blast the aliens and robot drones trying to stop you.

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.

Check out the new screens for it over on the Bethesda Blog.

More details are also through the jump.

More »

David Perry says that gaming should be more convenient for players and the limitless power of cloud computing could help consumers get games easier and eventually lead to less clutter on shelves at home.

“Facebook is a really good example of how data ownership is changing,” Perry told attendees at Develop. “People don’t really care if they own a version of Texas Hold’em or Yoville as long as they can access it easily.

“YouTube didn’t try and drive everyone to their portal. Instead, they allowed videos to be distributed across the web. How many videos would you watch if you had to register with every video maker? How many videos would you watch if you had to download the entire video first? And yet that’s something we ask our consumers to do.”

To demonstrate this, he used World of Warcraft as an example. While commending Blizzard for the realively small download, he took the audience through the thirty-one clicks it takes to start playing the game.

“I get twenty clicks in before I see a play button; but then I still get another legal agreement.” he said.

Perry then stated that Gaikai would allow users to start playing with just one click which he says is absolutely critical and gaming companies need to get behind it.

“If Eidos wanted to do this, they couldn’t cover the world in game servers,” he said. “But if all our companies worked together, we could.”

We have a video interview with Big Dave which will be posted later.

Meanwhile, get more regarding his streaming games philosophy via Gamasutra.

Sony has said that it’s planning to start wooing developers for digitally distributed games on PSP by doing away with concept approval and releasing less expensive developer kits and low price points for new titles.

“We’re introducing new initiatives for the PSP which take it beyond traditional gaming, but still includes elements from gaming, and also includes new developers,” SCEE’s head of developer relations Zeno Colaco told Develop at E3.

So far, over 50 studios around the world are making new kinds of games and applications and creations will be offered through a separate area of the PlayStation Store open to the PSP and PSPgo.

Emerging markets, including India’s Gameshastra and Creat have also signed on but the development will not be reminiscent of Apple’s SDK with iPhone, because Sony’s SDK will not be made available publicly.

“It is still a professional environment, you still need a development kit and you still need to have investment and a team,” he stated. “But it can be a small team. We don’t see any of the restrictions on the disc-based space being in this space.”

More through the link.

Team 17′s Martyn Brown has told VG247 that the Alien Breed trilogy will be released on PS3, but for now it’s a timed Xbox 360 exclusive.

The first episode will have five levels, each at an hour long. There’s another three hours of co-op, which is separate content.

More on our interview with Martyn is on the way, via a video interview.

Zenimax’s recent purchase of id Software caused all sorts of concern from may different areas when it was first announced, but according to Bethesda bossman Pete Hines, there is really nothing to fear.

Bethesda and id will continue to do what each does best, make games – only from here on out publishing will be handled by Bethesda.

“id will continue to do what they’ve always done, which is make games,” Hines told VG247. “Rather than working with one or more publishers on different titles, they’ll now be a part of Bethesda and will have all their games published by Bethesda (outside of RAGE and Raven’s Wolfenstein, which will remain with their respective publishers per their existing agreements).”

Because of its long history with the roleplaying genre and new access to the Quake license, Hines was asked if there was the possibility of a Quake RPG in the future.

“I think we’re just going to let everyone at id and Bethesda Game Studios keep working on what they’re doing”, he told us. “So no, no Quake RPG in our future.”

Look for more of our conversation with Pete later in day.

Martyn Brown, studio director for Team 17, told Develop attendees that it cost the firm $2.5 million to create the Alien Breed trilogy for Xbox Live Arcade.

“It makes it one of the most expensive digital titles to-date,” he told the crowd while  stating that Team 17 employed around 30 people for 14-15 months to create the title.

Alien Breed is to be released in three parts starting in October and is expected to take a total of 15 hours to finish.

Thanks, GI.biz.

Peter Moore has responded, sort-of, to Dana White’s angry ramblings regarding EA’s mixed martial arts game MMA and EA turning down a game based on the UFC in the past.

“I know there has been some recent discussion about EA SPORTS bringing a challenger to this sport. I love mixed martial arts, and we’ve been working on a game concept since I came to (sic) two years ago,” he wrote on his blog. “I have great respect for the organizations and individuals that have invested in the sport’s growth over the past decade – so this is one that is near and dear to me and I’m excited to see such good progress to date.

“I trace my MMA video game roots back to my support of Crave’s UFC title on the Dreamcast in 2000, and have been a fan ever since. Our title will bring both innovation and further authenticity to mixed martial arts, not to mention a strong global publishing network that will help spread the sport’s popularity around the world.”

Nice way to put it without being a jerk about it.

Dana White stated yesterday that the UFC is now “at war” with EA’s MMA and will blacklist any fighters should they sign with EA.

This isn’t the first time UFC fighters have been “threatened” with a spanking should they not do as they are told.

Via Kotaku.

3D Realms has released more Duke Nukem Forever screens, this time over in its Facebook page.

According to CVG, Take-Two has been trying to get the Xbox 360 version released through another publisher, and rumors going ’round say there’s another “non-DNF in the works”.

Point is, do you even really care anymore?

Hit the links to see for yourself.

Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter’s estimated that GTA 360 DLC The Ballad of Gay Tony will sell around 3 million units, with the PSP version of Chinatown Wars settling in the 1 million unit region.

“Both GTA games will do well, but only Gay Tony this year (fiscal year ends October 31),” he told VG247.

“I think both will do well, Gay Tony 2 – 3 mm units (1mm downloads and the rest discs), and Chinatown Wars at least 1mm.”

Pachter described last night’s decision to delay BioShock 2 into FY2010 as “pretty big”.

“They lowered guidance by $0.80 – 0.90, so that pretty much sums up the impact,” he said.

Gay Tony releases for 360 this autumn.

David Perry told the Develop Conference in Brighton this morning that western MMO devs are “kissing goodbye” to extensive opps by ignoring Asian markets.

“Western developers just aren’t exploiting this anything like as much as they should,” Perry said.

“That’s a bit of a scary trend. A lot of developers rushed off to make an MMO but what’s happening is they’re forgetting all about Asia. They immediately start thinking ‘we’ll charge for a subscription, we’ll put it in retail,’ and what they do is kiss goodbye to China and Korea, and India – which is the new China. So they’re leaving tons of money on the table.”

We’re speaking to Big Dave in half an hour. Get the rest of the news from his speech from GI.

Del Ray is to release a novel based on the God of War franchise in March 2010.

The book is the first in a two-part deal.

Blurb:

In the novel GOD OF WAR, Kratos, the game’s protagonist, is a great warrior who seeks revenge on the God of War Ares for the deaths of his wife and child. On his journey to Olympus, Kratos must battle great monsters of legend–and fight his own inner demons. Kratos’ quest will take him through a world of Greek mythology transformed, in which the familiar legends take on a terrifying new life–from the Aegean, where Kratos will grapple with the Great Hydra, to the depths of Hades, where Kratos will face death itself, to the heights of Mount Olympus. With all the thrilling action that got fans hooked on the game, the novel GOD OF WAR takes us deeper into this fascinating world.

Press release here.

Develop 2009 takes place in Brighton, UK, this week, and we’ll be on-hand to bring you all the news at it happens. Well, as much news as we can put on the internet, anyway. Here’s what we’re covering live and stuff you should look out for over the next three days.

All times are BST.

Wednesday, July 15, 9.30-10.30am – Dave Jones keynote The Realtime Worlds boss’s talk is titled “Online functionality for your next game? Why not go 100% online”. Hopefully it’ll throw up gameplay footage of APB, but even if it doesn’t there’s bound to be good news from this. We’ll be liveblogging it (pictures included, God willing) so make sure you tune in.

Wednesday, July 15, 4.30-5.30pm – Media Molecule keynote Media Molecule co-founders Kareem Ettouney and Mark Healey are talking about “The Art of LittleBigPlanet – A Big Medley”. Again, we’ll do a liveblog with images, so watch closely for word on what’s coming next in the world of sack boys and girls.

Thursday, July 16, 11.00am-12.00pm – Sony motion control keynote Don’t miss this. It’s SCEE’s Kish Hirani and Colin Hughes showing “a lot more about the new PS3 controller shown at E3″. Sony’s promising to show the system working with existing and upcoming games, so pay close attention. We’ll be posting live images, and we’ll have video up as soon as we humanly can. Assuming we’re allowed to shoot it, obviously.

Other stuff – Check out Develop’s site for information on all the keynotes and other sessions. We’ve got tons of interviews scheduled for the show, so fingers crossed this should be a big news week for the development “world”. Check out our pre-show thoughts in last week’s podcast.

If you find any stuff on the site you think might be good for us to cover, give us a shout in the comments and we’ll see what we can do. If you’re a developer, and you’re angry that we’re marginalising you by focusing on the above, do the same.

Relentless has announced the secret project it mentioned for the first time at Develop last year, an episodic murder mystery called Blue Toad Murder Files.

The game’s a PSN exclusive, and the Buzz!-creator’s first foray into self-publishing.

“Blue Toad Murder Files is a murder mystery game along the lines of Agatha Christie and Midsomer Murders and 1001 other murder mystery TV dramas like Sherlock Holmes – that’s the style of the game,” Relentless boss David Amor told GI.

There’s lots more through there. The game’s out in December. The official website’s up now.

While BioShock 2′s delay into fiscal 2010 quite rightly dominated last night’s confessional press release and subsequent conference call from Take-Two, you may not have noticed that it wasn’t the only big game to take a tumble.

Max Payne 3 has also been pushed into the next financial year, having been originally planned for a “winter” 2009 release.

Said CEO Ben Feder:

“The decision to shift a release date is never an easy one, especially with a product as highly anticipated as BioShock 2. We felt that it was essential to invest the additional time to ensure that this title will deliver what its fans expect and deserve.

“As a result, we will now be launching sequels to several of our strongest franchises – including BioShock 2, Mafia II, Max Payne 3 and Red Dead Redemption – during the next fiscal year. These titles will anchor our lineup for fiscal 2010, and along with other products planned for next year, provide a platform for enhanced financial performance in what we hope will be an improved retail environment.”

Whoops.

Activision’s put out the second edition of its Wolfenstein web comic, the next part in the series we didn’t report on in the first place. We’ve failed you, Wolfenstein fan.

Get both videos after the break. We’ll never be so slack again. That’s a lie, actually. The game’s out in August. Thanks, Joystiq.

More »

id confirmed in press invitations last night that Rage is going to make its proper debut at QuakeCon this year, to take place from August 13-16 in Grapevine, Texas.

The game’s site went live yesterday, promising a four-week “journey,” presumably running up to the reveal itself.

More than 57,000 people have now signed a petition to get LAN functionality put into StarCraft II, as notice by IGN.

The effort went live immediately after Blizzard confirmed the feature wouldn’t make the game.

StarCraft II will only be playable competitively through the next version of Battle.Net.

The game has no release date as yet.

Hello, Tuesday. You’ve got a video of Infinity Ward’s Rob Bowling unboxing the Prestige edition of Modern Warfare 2. What’s that? It includes a fully functioning pair of night vision goggles, as well as the steel book copy of the game and an art book?

Thanks, Tuesday. We’ll put that after the break.

More »

Joystiq just posted a literal rogues’ gallery of villainous screenshots, profiles, and concept art from Batman: Arkham Asylum. Honestly, it all looks fantastic.

Click the link to learn about all the costumed nutcases you’ll encounter in Arkham Asylum. After all, you’ve at least got to be on a first name basis with someone before you can punch them in the face. It’s proper etiquette.