Monthly Archives: July 2009

Kenji Matsubara, global President and CEO of Tecmo Koei Holdings, has said that despite a difficult start in Japan, Microsoft is doing better with Xbox 360 than it did with the original console.

“Xbox 360 as a business is doing better than the old Xbox,” he told Kikizo. “They have a good opportunity for growth, but of course Sony is a Japanese company and Microsoft is known as a business software company, so brand image is one point. But Microsoft is doing well, especially considering how difficult it is these days.

“I think they have good growth potential for the future depending on the titles. We have a close relationship with Microsoft so I hope we can be a part of that.”

More through the link.

Xbox Live Marketplace always seems to have something new whether it’s Tuesday or not. Good for gamers.

Here’s a look at what hit this week, courtesy of IGN.

Game Content

• Battlestations: Pacific – Mustang Unit Pack 160 MS Points ($2.00): P-51 Mustang, G5N Liz long range bomber, Alaska Class cruiser, Montana Class battleship, Kuma Torpedo cruiser, Super Yamato Class battleship, 9 new US pin-up girl nose arts and 9 new Japanese nose arts.

• Guitar Hero World Tour – Epitaph Punk-O-Rama Track Pack – “Linoleum” – NOFX, “Ruby Soho” – Rancid, “21st Century Digital Boy” – Bad Religion: 440 MS Points ($5.50) or individuals -160 MS Points ($2.00)

• TigerWoodsPGATOUR 10 – Courses: Pebble Beach’s Spyglass Hill 600 MS Points ($7.50); The Predator 600 MS Points ($7.50)

• Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires – Kempo and Royal Armor Sets for Men (both free), Artemis and Queen Armor Sets for Women (both free)

Themes

• The King of Fighters XIII  Premium Theme 2 – 240 MS Points ($3.00)
• The King of Fighters XIII  Basic Theme 2 – 160 MS Points ($2.00)

Trailers

• Bayonetta – Trailer 4:  Second Climax (Free)
• Saints Row 2 – Corporate Warfare Developer Diary Trailer (Free)
• Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood – Oh Mama Trailer (Free)

Valve doesn’t want to make PlayStation games. End of.

“If we were customers of that product on PlayStation, we’d feel like we sort of got the stepchild version of the product while the guys on the PC and the 360 got the sweet version of it,” Valve marketing boss Doug Lombardi told CVG in London yesterday.

And why are Valve’s PC and 360 games better than Valve’s PlayStation games? Because Valve isn’t very good at PlayStation games. End of.

“If you look at it as a matter of Valve doing it, Valve did the 360 and the PC version of the Orange Box and they both go 96 on Metacritic – The PS3 version was nowhere close to that. Left 4 Dead got a 89 or a 90 on 360 and PC,” Lombardi said.

He added: “Until we have the ability to get a PS3 team together, until we find the people who want to come to Valve or who are at Valve who want to work on that, I don’t really see us moving to that platform.”

End of. Please.

Despite nearly 40,000 people signing a petition against the apparently overly early announcement of Left 4 Dead, Valve told CVG in London yesterday that it didn’t make a jot of difference.

“It really didn’t change our plans at all,” said Valve marketing boss Doug Lombardi.

“As I mentioned we had plans to keep releasing stuff [for L4D1]. We put the Survival Pack out for free which I thought was pretty cool on 360 as well as PC – it’s sort of uncommon to be able to get new stuff out that way.”

That’s where petitions get you, kids. There’s more through there.

Valve’s told EG that Left 4 Dead 2 pre-orders are double those taken for the original game.

“Our pre-orders are currently double what they were for Left 4 Dead 1 at this point in time away from launch,” said Valve’s Doug Lombardi. “We’re like 20 weeks out or something like that.”

He added: “We’re seeing great enthusiasm from retailers, from EA, [and] the press called it multiplayer game of E3.”

The zombie shooter’s out later this year for PC and 360.

A ton of concept art, supposedly from Test Drive Unlimited 2, has popped up in this forum.

Is it real? We’ll have an ask. The game’s never been officially announced. The Eden-developed, Atari-published 360 and PC original was released in 2007.

Via Gamersyde. Thanks, DrDamn.

CVG’s just posted nine new Left 4 Dead 2 screens, showing a town location.

There’s some kind of awesome white suit going on there. And some zombies, natch.

It’s out later this year.

Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski has explained to Develop why there are a lot of short-haired action heroes this generation. Apparently, it’s because current gen tech can’t do hair very well.

“I just think that the technology of this generation just happens to be very good at rendering metals and stones and dramatic lighting, which is why you see a lot of pillars and girders and destroyed blown-out areas because that’s what the bump-mapping happens to do very well,” he said.

“At the same time, in this generation the translucent effects are very hard to pull off. That’s why everybody sees a lot of these bald characters and wonder why games feature so many fucking space marines. Well, the tech is good at showing off armour and it’s not that good at doing hair. That’s why we have bald space marines. There’s your answer people.”

There. It’s got nothing to do with appealing to action-loving men. Full interview through the link.

Codies has released some good shots of Op Flash: Dragon Rising, giving hope that the new “autumn” date may stick.

The war sim’s a cross-platform release, so keep watching, PC, PS3 and 360 “fans”.

After the break.

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Quirky puzzle-platformer FEZ is on the way to XBLA next year, as confirmed here.

FEZ features Gomez, “a 2D man on a voyage of discovery into the mysterious 3rd dimension.”

Looks cool. More here. Thanks, deftangel.

Activision has refused to confirm an apparent £108 price point for DJ Hero, but has told VG247 that the title will be worth the money.

“We don’t comment on our product pricing strategies,” said a rep.

“However, we believe that DJ Hero will provide tremendous value for our consumers by delivering an all-new interactive music experience with over 100 individual songs that are highlighted in over 80 unique mixes, a wide variety of music from some of the biggest artists including Jay-Z, Eminem, Benny Benassi, Gwen Stefani and Black Eyed Peas among others.”

UK retailer ShopTo is currently listing the game and turntable controller at £94.85, a discount from what it claims is an RRP of £107.99.

It’s releasing in November.

More from the PS Blog Uncharted 2 live chat earlier this week. Dev boss Evan Wells said the game contains more than an hour-and-a-half of “cinematics”. Which can be translated as “cut-scenes”, presumably.

“The single player campaign is definitely going to be longer than Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune,” said the developer.

“We have over 90 minutes of cinematics alone! And of course we have the competitive and co-op multiplayer modes too!”

The new Metal Gear! Maybe not. You can read the full transcript through the link. Thanks, VGB.

Valve told EG in London yesterday that it didn’t expect such an adverse reaction to Left 4 Dead 2, and put “confusion” surrounding a perceived dropping of the first game down to E3′s format.

“We obviously listen to the community a lot,” said Doug Lombardi. “That’s one of our staples. Did we anticipate it? No, we didn’t, but I think that one of the key things is: announcing Left 4 Dead 2 doesn’t mean we’re abandoning Left 4 Dead 1.

“Another thing is it’s important to remember that E3 is where you go to announce new titles, specifically titles that are coming to retail. We do press there, but it’s not really a venue for announcing DLC or mod tools.

“So I think there was a little bit of confusion that we created unintentionally, by announcing a sequel and not having the complete story ready: announcing it and not saying, there’s still a lot of stuff being worked on for Left 4 Dead 1, and the mod tools will work with both games.”

So calm down, internet. Everything’s fine, apparently. Hit the link for the full thing.

Sony’s patented what looks to be new motion tech that would allow gamers to use everyday objects in play, such as “coffee mugs, drinking glasses, books, bottles, etc.”

There’s tons of detail and diagrams on Siliconera. Thanks, Kotaku.

WoW players now have access to a fully functioning in-game Twitter client in the form of TweetCraft.

It allows you to:

• Send/receive Tweets in-game (Immediate sending reloads your UI)
• Queue Tweets to send when it’s more convenient for you
• Upload in-game screenshots using TwitPic
• AutoTweet when you log in, enter an instance or get an achievement
• Extensible so that AddOn authors can register messages or events to AutoTweet

Amazing. Video after the break. Thanks, Offworld.

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How can we make this interesting? We can’t. Some of these numbers have gone up and down a little since last week.

If you’ve got any ideas about how we can “pep” the weekly Japanese hardware figures up a bit, we’re all ears.

Data below from June 22-28.

• DSi – 39,885
• PSP – 26,789
• Wii – 21,790
• PS3 – 11,310
• Xbox 360 – 5,766
• DS Lite – 5,595
• PS2 – 3,578

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EA’s released the first proper gameplay trailer of Dante’s Inferno, and it’s looking very hot. Apt, really.

Forget the navel-gazing – this is going to be fucking awesome.

Hit the drop for proof. It’s out next year for 360, PS3 and PSP. Thanks, Blerk.

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Milla Jovovich has confirmed that the fourth Resident Evil movie will begin filming at the end of the year.

Apparently it’s called Resident Evil: Afterlife.

Watch the video after the break, around the 1.20 mark.

From ShockTillYouDrop, via Kotaku.

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We’re actually not that far off playing Tim Schafer’s Brutal Legend, which is probably why we’re seeing a lot more of Brutal Legend. Hit the link to see the game’s opening sequences, as narrated by the developer himself.

It’s out for 360 and PS3 in October. Thanks, Joystiq.

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That’s right, PC people. Cling on to the dream. Tim Schafer refused to rule out a PC version of Brutal Legend in last night’s live Eurogamer interview.

“We are really focused on the Xbox 360 and PS3 version right now,” he said.

Don’t get too excited, though. It doesn’t exactly sound as though it’s top of Doublefine’s priorities.

“Well it’s really an action game, that when you play it you’ll see that it was meant to be on a console,” he added.

The full thing’s through the link. Not much else in terms of “news”.