Monthly Archives: July 2009

Zynga’s social networking game Mafia Wars has hit four million users.

According to Gamasutra, daily players have doubled over the last three months, and like most free-to-play titles, it’s micro-transaction based should you choose to purchase items.

To help build on the success of this genre, Zynga has hired game designer Brian Reynolds whose previous works include Alpha Centauri and Rise of Nations.

The browser-based multiplayer RPG is available on Myspace, Facebook, Yahoo Games and iPhone.

We had no idea how popular it was, despite the barrage of Facebook invitations we get for it in a single day. But there ya go.

Thanks, VideogamesBlogger.

Ubisoft has filed a trademark with the USPTO for Just Dance.

That’s it really. Nothing else was detailed, but it sure sounds like a Wii title to us.

Not surprising since Ubisoft has been saying for three years now it plans on more Wii support.

We’re just not sure that this is what the public imagined when that promise was uttered.

Via Joystiq, GoNintendo.

LucasArts has teased a reveal for Monday via Twitter, stating that the announcement will be another “old school” title for fans to go gaga over.

It could be anything, really, considering how highly the company thinks of digital distribution.

Here are the tweets thanks to GamingShogun:

• Tweet One: ‘Amazing news coming Monday! Super excited! You have no idea how tough it is not to start yelling about it! But it’s secret! Until Monday!’
• Tweet Two: ‘I don’t want to tease, it is just tough not to say anything! I might be tempted, however. Have to think about it over the weekend. ’
• Tweet Three: ‘Okay, we will do hints. It is awesome news for our old school fans. (anything more direct might get me in trouble)’

Ah, lovely Twitter. You have become the place for gaming publishers and developers to tease the pants off of loyal idolaters.

VG247 had a chance to send Turbine over a few questions for Lord of the Rings Online, specifically regarding some of the changes to the crafting system and the new content included in Book 8 for Mines of Moria.

Aaron “Rowan” Campbell, live producer for the game, was kind enough to answer our prattling questions, and gave us hints on what to expect in the future for the Tolkien-based MMO.

It’s posted in it’s entirety through the jump. It’s rather lengthy. Might wanna go grab a snack first.

More »

Gearbox’s Mikey Neumann says that the development studio would love to release a Borderlands demo, but is more concerned with getting the game finished at this point.

“We talk about a demo every day. We would love to do a demo,” Neumann told Shacknews. “There’s obviously factors there. If and when we do one, I don’t know if it’d be pre-launch or post-launch, because …there’s a lot of factors there.

“We would love to promise a demo, we can’t quite yet, we just want to get the game done,” he adds. “That’s always the hardest thing for developers to do—you never quite know how the time’s going to work out. We’re doing really well, but I can’t promise it.”

Borderlands is out in October.

Via Kotaku.

The Joan Ganz Clooney Center from the Sesame Workshop has issued a report called Game Changer, and it states that the government and special interest groups should give gaming a little slack.

Instead, research should be conducted on the positive effect it has on children, because according to the report, games can be educational, physically, and beneficial when used in the classroom.

Sesame Workshop and the Ganz Clooney Center’s purpose is to “foster innovation in children’s learning through digital media”.

More through Kotaku.

God Eater was officially announced this week, and today, Namco released a video of it.

It’s posted after the break courtesy of Kotaku.

The game is expected to land on PSP this fall in Japan.

More »

CVG has posted three videos of Left 4 Dead 2.

The lucky gougers over there got hands on with it during Valve’s London event yesterday.

One shows the final act where they’re battling the horde across a bridge, and trying to reach a military chopper.

Hit the link to have a look.

Aside from a Double XP weekend, Gears of War 2 gets a title update today.

Update 4 fixes bugs, tweaks Wingman matchs, weapon spawning and an exploit where players get credit for two kills instead of one.

The lengthy list of patch notes are over on the official site.

Thanks, Joystiq.

World of Warcraft game director Tom Chilton has told Videogamer that the MMO giant could someday be micro-transaction based.

However, while that remains a possibility, it doesn’t mean it will happen.

“I certainly think it’s possible that we could do some kind of micro-transaction stuff,” said Chilton. “Whether or not World of Warcraft ever goes the direction of, I guess like Anarchy Online has gone the direction of going free-to-play with micro-transactions. Whether we ever shift to a free-to-play model is really too hard to say at this point.

“Anything I say now could easily five years from now end up seeming like, oh my gosh, that was an incredibly dumb thing to say.”

More through the link.

Konami has announced a European release for Contra ReBirth.

You can expected it this August on WiiWare.

It was also announced that Driift, will land later this month as DRiiFT MANIA.

More through Joystiq.

Media Molecule has hinted on its blog that Ghostbusters content is headed LittleBigPlanet’s way.

The tease, basically just says “Who Ya Gonna Call” like the picture above.

So much for subtly.

Thanks, D’toid.

Kenji Matsubara, president and CEO of Tecmo Koei, is all over the news today. During an interview with Kikizo, he discussed the Japanese gaming market and what can b done to salvage it.

“The Japanese video game market is pretty much the same, or is even shrinking, compared to ten years ago. But we can see a lot of growth opportunity, even within the Japanese market,” he told the site. “The problem is that the tastes of Japanese gamers have changed so much compared to ten years ago. Ten years ago, Japanese RPGs were dominant, but the platform for this has changed in terms of online oriented services and performance.

“From a developer and publisher perspective, we need to reassess and cater to that, because at this moment we have not caught up to the expectation of Japanese customers, but when we do catch up, I am sure we can see the growth of the Japanese market again.

“You can see that the popularity of PS3 and 360 in Japan is very small compared to the western market; it does not mean Japanese customers do not want to spend money on new game systems, it is because they don’t see titles that are appealing to them; we’re struggling with high performance consoles, but by contrast, the PSP has expanded very rapidly for example.”

More through the link.

According to a post on Twitter, EA could possibly be working on Skate 3.

Here’s the tweet from Schmitty, from Skate website Epicly Trife:

“I just got told ‘tonight we gotta celebrate’, one of the bro’s got offered to be in SKATE 3″.

A Kotaku reader suggests this skater to be Chet Childress. Hit the links to see for yourself.

As with all rumors, keep your hats on till you hear different.

Capcom will release Monster Hunter Freedom Unite downloadable content, for free, every Friday for the next few months starting today.

Today’s “Epic Hunting Quest” is “The Triumvirate of the Sands” which features monsters Daimyo Hermitaur, Tigrex, and Plesioth.

To get the DLC, just fire up your PSP and click Download from the start menu.

Via D’toid.

Frozenbyte’s Joel Kinnunen has weighed-in on not only the disparity between price points on the recently released Trine, but the confusion over different versions of the game.

“We want Trine to be on XBLA but it, too, is out of our hands,” he told Eurogamer. “We’re working with Atlus to make it happen but it depends on so many things again.

“You know, at one point Trine was a PC-only game. That’s how it started. We’re really happy that it’s coming to PSN and if we get it to XBLA, then we’re even happier. The problem is that this is not really the optimal way to do a game (or a game launch).

“Trine as a project is a big mess, as opposed to Trine as a game, which is pretty sweet. Ultimately it’s the game part that really matters and helps us sleep at night, though.”

More through the link.

Tecmo Koei CEO Kenji Matsubara, has said that during meeting with Sony, he requested a price cut for PS3.

“Whenever I discuss this with Sony reps I always ask them: ‘Please cut the price’, but I don’t have a clear view on Sony’s situation,” Matsubara told CVG. “Yes, from a publisher’s point of view we would welcome a price cut for PS3, and we are waiting, definitely.

“It’s definitely a way of boosting the PS3 market, but it’s Sony’s strategy and I don’t know their cost structure. Sony introduced cutting-edge technology in the PS3, that’s why people in the industry accept that the PS3 cost is so high, but we’d welcome a price cut.”

So would the rest of the world, apparently.

More through the link.

Topware and Reality Pump announced today that Two Worlds II will be released this winter for Mac, PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

The game takes place two years after the events of the first entry in the series, and puts you once again in the land of Antaloor.

Apparently, the developers have used a new engine which helped improve AI, balancing, and combat.

Full press release through the break, with screens over on Eurogamer Germany.

More »

Non-profit military support group Pro vs. GI Joe has announced a military-only online gaming network to give servicemen and women the opportunity to play together.

It was created to organize gaming matches between the military with athletes and celebrities while families watch and interact via webcam.

The Military Online Gaming program is powered by GGL Global Gaming social networking and will officially launch tomorrow, July 4, with a Call of Duty: World at War tournament. Prizes will be made available, two of which are an ATV and the opportunity to play against the Atlanta Falcons NFL football team.

“We created the MOG exclusively for the hundreds of thousands of military gamers around the world, to serve as a virtual connection among branches and bases, during deployments, and as a source of entertainment,” said founder Greg Zinone. “Our partnership with the USO allows troops to play wherever they are serving.”

Xbox 360 is the console of choice at the moment because it’s the one most abundant on bases. However, PC and PS3 support is currently in the works.

More from Shack.

2K Marin has released a bit of interesting concept art of the Little Sisters from BioShock 2.

Poor things seriously need to get some sunshine. They look a bit peaked.

Hit the link to have a gander at ‘em. Game’s out towards the end of October.