Monthly Archives: July 2009

Warner Bros officially owns Midway, along with  Mortal Kombat, This Is Vegas and Midway trademarks, which has led some to question whether the Midway brand will continue to exist.

“Midway Games Inc. still exists, and the Midway trademark and games such as Mortal Kombat and This is Vegas and most of the IP library are now owned by Warner Bros,” a Midway spokesperson told Kotaku.

“It will be up to Warner Bros. to determine how they will approach their branding strategy.”

Midway began life as Midway Mfg. Co. in 1958, so it would indeed be strange to see a Warner label on a Mortal Kombat game.

More through the link.

GoGamer.com has a 48 Hour Madness sale going on that ends Tuesday at 3 am EST.

One sale is upcoming MMO from NCsoft Aion for just $39.90 compared to $49.99, and an imported PC version of Blood Bowl (since it’s not out in the US yet) for $27.90.

Supreme Commander is $7.90, Homeworld is $9.90 and Homeworld 2 is $12.90. Not bad for older games.

Head on over and have a look.

Thanks, BigDownload.

id’s Marty Stratton has said that Quake Live will receive a fairly large update next Tuesday, July 14.

Information regarding the content yet to be revealed, but updates to the game will happen on Tuesdays from here on out, but not every Tuesday.

Updates will take around 3-4 hours, and bring down the servers, and these will take place in the mornings, US Central Time.

ClanBase has loads more information for you, so you may wanna pay the site a visit.

EA has a preview of the Honda S2000, which appears in Need for Speed: Shift, along with a bit of background on it.

You can see the shots and read all about it on Carthusiast.

Game’s out September 17 and 22 in the UK and US receptively.

Looks as though an entertainment reporter got some hands on time with the God of War movie script, and after reading it came to the conclusion that it’s like “Clash of the Titans on steroids and methamphetamines”.

Oh yeah, and the ending differs from the game.

Apparently, instead of taking over as “god of war” after killing Ares, instead Kratos throws himself from a cliff and just before he goes “splat” he says: “Your turn, Hades…” and the film cuts to black.

While it does indeed differ greatly, at least it sets itself up for the sequel where he, well, must escape Hades and exact revenge.

According to the original report from CC2K, the ending could change because the film has not started production yet.

Via: Cinemablend.

Hoplite Research has confirmed that Myst will arrive on PSP in the US July 16 as part of a publishing agreement with Cyan Worlds.

It’s the same adventure as the original, full of mazes, a dramatic storyline, lavish environments and puzzles with the addition of the New Rime Age – which was planned for the original but never released.

GamersDailyNews has about 20-odd screens of the game, go have a look.

Speaking to IndustryGamers, MJJ Productions, Michael Jackson’s production company, has apparently confirmed work on a home console game based on the now-dead singer.

Apparently it’ll feature both Jackson’s likeness and his recorded speech, as well as, obviously, the guy’s songs.

“I am sure it will still be released,” a MJJ Productions said. “Michael loved games.”

It’s out later this year, apparently.

Via MCV and Kotaku.

Game Informer’s lifted the lid on its August issue, revealing a world exclusive Rage cover.

“We’ve got tons of exclusive dirt on the post-apocalyptic title, including plenty of gameplay details and loads of screens,” says the mag’s blurb.

It’s worth noting that EA made a big play with Rage in Leipzig last year, so the timing of this may well fit in with the fact gamescom takes place next month in Cologne.

Fingers crosses, anyway. Hit the link for a hi-res image.

New shots showing the cars you can drive in Forza 3 have popped up on the net.

It’s out in October.

Check ‘em out through the link.

Thanks, Xboxygen.

Bethesda bossman Pete Hines has told G4 that a status update on the DLC for Fallout 3 PS3 will arrive next week.

“[We'll] have [an] update for folks on that next week,” he told the site via email.

The first bit of DLC for PS3 will be Operation: Anchorage with the rest to follow in the order it was released on PC and Xbox 360.

It was suppose to land on the Sony platform in June.

Harmonix and MTV announced today that Radiohead and Killswitch Engage will arrive for Rock Band Unplugged July 16.

• Radiohead – My Iron Lung
• Killswitch Engage – My Curse

Each one will run you $1.99 per track on the PSP system.

Valve has sent us over a lovely email announcing that Left 4 Dead 2 will be shown and playable during Comic-Con in San Diego.

Not only that, but attendees will get a chance to see Swamp Fever first-hand when it is unveiled.

Along with this second of five campaigns being revealed, Valve is also planning to unveil a few more of the 20-plus new items included in the game.

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

Sean Cunningham, art director for God of War III, has said that he and the team are worried that Kratos’ newest adventure may be banned in Australia due to its ultra violent content.

“There is (concern),” he told Screen Play. “We try to push the boundaries a little bit. (But) we’ve had meetings and discussions and internally we all have a good gauge on what’s ‘too far’.

“You throw something past [content rating boards] and they might say ‘Absolutely not! You could not do that!’ and we’re all like: ‘Aww, c’mon, that was a great idea!’ There have been a couple of those.

“Also visually, everyone’s really excited. The disembowelment of the centaur, ripping Helios’s head off, the reaction from the floor has been amazing. Everybody in the studio is very happy.”

Game’s out in 2010, which should give the devs plenty of time to bow down to the Australian ratings board should they choose.

More over on GamePolitics.

The new DLC Quest for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is live, according to Capcom Unity.

Looks like you will have to fight off some Felynes and Melynx.

If you beat the quests, you get tickets to make a new shirt/armor called the Hunter T-Shirt.

More details are through the link.

DICE’s community challenge to unlock the Coral Sea map for Battlefield 1943 appears to be going well, for those who can get in the game.

In case you don’t recall, the goal is for communities on PSN and Xbox Live to log 43 million kills.

As of this post,  Xbox has 1,127,225 and PS3 739,612 per the official website.

Looks like it should only be a week or so before Coral Sea is unlocked, once everyone gets to play it.

Via Joystiq.

Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson expects says that he recession may be hitting games harder than financial gurus and chart trackers previously thought.

In his NPD preview note to investors, Wilson estimates software sales for June have dropped 20 percent year-over-year to $700 million.

“Our most recent checks have indicated that the relative health that we have seen may not have continued into June,” he wrote. “Our contacts indicate that sales in the important ‘school’s out’ period, especially in the last two weeks of June, were disappointing and represented a deviation in the early-year trend.

“While it is too early to call a long-term trend, we have taken a more conservative view of new and catalog products in our June NPD forecast. If the data back up our checks, it may be time to reassess the degree to which videogames really are ‘recession proof.’”

Wilson said that the expected slide can be attributed to the less-than-warm reception of big releases and “slipping consumer confidence”.

More through Gamespot.

Capcom has teamed up with GameTap to give gamers the ability to play Street Fighter II Champion Edition in their broser.

This is in celebration of the PC release for Street Fighter IV.

Cool. Go play it here.

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia has predicted that Activision will delay the release of Starcraft 2 into 2010 instead of shipping it in October 2009.

Bhatia expects the game to sell around three million copies with a 2010 release being a positive thing for the company, despite the missing the holiday shopping season.

Activision had no comment regarding a Stracraft date, however, it was announced yesterday that Singularity would be pushed into 2010 to make way for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

More over on TeamLiquid.

Loads of dialogue is being mashed into Star Wars: The Old Republic, according to the game’s director of audio and localization, Shauna Perry.

Considering MMOs are not ones for loads of chatter, that’s saying quite a bit, literally.

Here are some facts:

• The Old Republic will have ten times more lines than Knights of the Old Republic
• On any given day, there can be a dozen people working on voice-over — not including actors
• By the time the game ships, they will have recorded 1,000 four-hour VO sessions.
• The game’s entire script has 40+ novels worth of content
• The’re working with hundreds of actors in five cities: New York, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Toronto.

Sounds lovely.

Thanks, GameDaily.

Batman: Arkham Asylum will ship in August, and to get you prepared for it, IGN has pics and background information on some of the villains in the game.

There’s also a new trailer featuring these insane folks after the break.

Hit the link for a healthy does of insane.

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