Monthly Archives: August 2009

Price cuts for consoles may not stimulate hardware or software sales in the US, says Doug Creutz of Cowan and Company.

Due to economic pressures, Creutz does not believe that despite historically working in the past, a price cut will not boost the games market this time around.

“We are concerned that, given pressures on the consumer, price cuts may not have the stimulative impact to hardware and software sales that they have had in the past,” wrote Creutz in a note to investors.

“We expect hardware price cuts on all platforms by September, with announcements possibly as early as next week’s Gamescom.”

Creutz has suggested that a $100 cut to PS3, $50 off Wii, and the Xbox 360 Elite dropping to $300 would be a major benefit to both the consumer and the console makers.

More over on GI.biz.

Peter Moore gave a keynote this morning at the Edinburgh Interactive Conference and discussed how EA Sports learned how to reinvent itself to women and embrace Nintendo’s Wii.

“The only time our testosterone-fuelled business talked to women was about games for their boyfriends, sons or fathers,” said Moore.

“The Wii came along and the dynamics changed. The audience changed radically – no longer interested in passive sitting down, it became more about getting up off the couch. We knew that if this is where the business was going, we were going to lag behind unless we changed our business model.

“Probably the most stark example of success on the Wii is the rise of health and wellness. We are EA Sports, where do we come in on this? We did $150m business in the first year in our case by talking to the female consumer and providing a solution to someone who perhaps can’t get to a gym, or afford one, through EA Sports active.

“It’s not only great business for the company but we are changing people’s lives through a game, and actually, it’s not just a game it’s an experience. It kicks your ass. We are delighted we are talking to girls, we are talking to women.”

More over on Guardian UK.

A demo for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is now available on Xbox Live and soon on the US PSN.

The PSN update for North America is not live yet so just hang tight, and hopefully we will receive word on an update soon.

Meanwhile, if you have not played it on 360, now’s your chance to try it out.

More than 420 exhibitors from 30 countries are expected to descend upon Cologne for GamesCom.

Loads of premieres, events and entertainment are expected along with seminars on Youth Protection.

According to the press release issued by organizers, stands are already being set-up at the over 120K square meters or exhibition space.

It’s gonna be huge, and we will be there for the entire thing August 19-23.

Full thing through the break.

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Microsoft has added the ability to preview and purchase Avatar Marketplace items and add Games on Demand to your Xbox 360 download queue via your PC.

What this means is that if you want to purchase Avatar clothing online, or purchase a new game that will be ready and waiting for you in your queue when you get home – you can.

There’s more over on the Major.

Harmonix has officially announced the Rock Band Metal Track Pack that the ESRB outed last Friday.

Out on October 13 at retailers for a suggested price of $29.99, the 20 songs can be played via the disc or imported into the game.

Here’s the track list:

• All That Remains -Two Weeks
• At the Gates – Blinded By Fear
• Black Tide – ShockWave
• Blue Öyster Cult – Transmaniacon MC
• Bullet For My Valentine – Waking the Demon
• Children of Bodom – Are You Dead Yet
• Evile – Thrasher
• Godsmack – I Stand Alone
• The Haunted – D.O.A.
• Hawkwind – Master Of The Universe
• I Mother Earth – Levitate
• In This Moment – Forever
• Judas Priest – Screaming for Vengeance
• Lacuna Coil – Closer
• Lamb of God – Laid to Rest
• Motörhead – Killed by Death
• Nazareth – Hair of the Dog
• Queens of the Stone Age – 3’s & 7’s
• Rage Against The Machine – Bulls On Parade
• Yngwie Malmsteen – Red Devil

Halo 3: ODST maps Citadel, Heretic, and Longshore are put into motion via a video after the break, couresy of GameTrailers.

It’s out September 22.

Watch below Citadel below and the rest over on Joystiq.

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THQ wants to celebrate the launch of the Demons of the Badlands DLC for Red Faction: Guerrilla, by giving away a customized Red Faction Xbox 360.

To enter the contest, all you have to do is register with myTHQ.

It’s worth a shot at least. Ya never know – the stars might align just right for you.

More information through the link.

EA has announced that Army of Two: The 40th Day has been scheduled for January 8 and 12 in the UK and US, respectively.

Originally it was slated for sometime this  summer, without a firm release date given – but now its coming in January.

However, despite the “possible” delay, those who preorder the game will get exclusive access to the multiplayer mode Extraction at launch – those who did not preorder will get to play it a month after the game ships.

Nice way to make it up to you, we suppose.

Game’s out for Xbox 360, PSP and PS3 upon release.

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There will be no “major announcements” in tonight’s Quakecon keynote, id super-boss Tim Willits said at the Texan event today.

The exec said that the press conference will instead focus on updates for already-announced games.

And that means no DOOM 4 for you, Ringo.

Willits dropped the tidbits in an overheard press room chat. The walls have ears, Tim.

We’ll be liveblogging Quakecon’s opening speech from 9.30pm BST tonight. Get more details on that here.

Raven Software designer Manveer Heir has tweeted that if Wolfenstein outsells Madden 10 in August, he will personally reimburse you for your copy of Wolfenstein.

We saw this yesterday and honestly thought it was a joke.

Apparently, not.

Here’s the tweet:

Here’s the deal folks: if Wolfenstein outsells Madden 10 in August I will personally pay for your copy (keep your receipt) – SPREAD THE WORD

Here’s the clarification tweet:

And so everyone knows I’ll be using the NPD numbers to determine if we outsold Madden 10 – but anyone can be reimbursed worldwide.

Madden may be hard to beat in the US, honestly, but we suppose it’s worth a shot.

To get reimbursed, you must also follow him on Twitter, and it’s only valid for one copy.

Screen Digest has issued a report stating that despite the popularity of the online games market, publishers are gingerly adopting the trend due to retail relationships.

Not wanting to subvert these relationships, publishers are instead releasing titles that either cost little to digital distribute, or are undermarketed titles. Because of this cautious attitude, Screen Digest believes that consoles currently on the market are nothing more than transition devices that will become obsolete before their capabilities are realized.

Therefore, online downloads will not become viable until the next hardware generation is released.

“While the online console market is growing strongly and will provide welcome revenue in later years, today’s consoles have been consigned to the important, but ultimately limited, online market role of ‘transitional’ devices as the industry only slowly makes its way to a more online-console orientated framework.

“There will be a substantial addressable online market to exploit towards the end of the cycle, but it is likely that this opportunity will remain significantly untapped and it won’t be long before the industry will be forced once again to prepare itself for the next generation of hardware.”

The report indicates that ‘active online TV consoles’ will reach 79 million by 2010 but at the same time, users will only spend $1.2 billion annually on online downloads by 2013 which will be just 11 percent of the current-gen console market.

Full thing past the break.

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Codemasters told VG247 today that the October’s Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising won’t have DX11 support at launch, but it doesn’t sound as though a future update’s being ruled out.

“Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising will not support DX11 out of the box,” said a rep by email.

“Colin McRae DiRT 2 will be our lead title supporting DX11 later in the year.”

We followed up on the phone but couldn’t get an answer on whether or not the game will get DX11 support through DLC. Guess we’ll just have to wait.

The PC version of DiRT2 was delayed to fit in DX11 features last month. It’s now releasing in December.

Tony Hawk will be making a guest appearance at GamesCom to showcase the skateboard-controller for Tony Hawk: RIDE.

Hawk will give a demonstration of the game on the Activision showfloor followed by a meet and greet session to be followed by “tackling an imposing vert ramp with his jaw-dropping skating skills”.

Pat is so excited, he is having seizures.

Full press mailer after the break.

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The PC Gaming Alliance has welcomes eight companies into the fold, including GameStop and Gas Powered Games.

Other new members include BFG Technologies, Bigfoot Networks, Flextronics, GameTap, Howie’s Game Shack, and InstantAction.

“I’ve spent most of my career fully immersed in the world of PC gaming. It’s where many of the world’s biggest gaming franchises were born and where much of the industry’s innovation continues to this day,” said Gas Powered’s Chris Taylor.

“By joining the PCGA, Gas Powered Games hopes to make contributions that keep PC gaming at the forefront of the industry, help it to overcome its challenges, and continue to fulfill its amazing potential.”

Other members include AMD, Capcom, Dell, Epic, Microsoft, and nVidia.

More through Gamasutra.

Firebrand Games has announced that TrackMania will be coming to Wii.

“Firebrand has always strived to develop racing engines that make the current generation of machines do things that no-one thought possible 18 months ago,” said Firebrand boss Mark Greenshields.

“We altered people’s perception of just what the DS could do with Race Driver GRID and TrackMania DS, and TrackMania Wii is no less jaw-dropping.”

Firebrand will be showing the game at GamesCom to publishers.

Via CVG.

Quakecon kicks off in Texas today, and from the look of things this evening’s press conference should be a “doozy,” as our man on the ground, Nathan Grayson, is fond of saying.

Nathan will be liveblogging the event, which is looking likely to feature Rage, Bethesda titles and possibly a DOOM4 debut from 9.30pm BST tonight. That’s 3.30pm CDT (local), 4.30pm EST, 1.30pm PST and 10.30pm CET (Europe).

Don’t forget that IGN is streaming live video.

Get all the updates after the break. See you then!

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Since the beginning of January, Wii has sold almost 800,000 units in the UK while DSi has moved 370,000 and DS Lite pushed through 680,000.

Original numbers had caused some confusion when released by GAME compared to Chart-Track but now all has been reevaluated, and no longer do Nintendo console sales show a slow down.

For the year, here are the reevaluated numbers for lifetime sales units as of week 31:

• Wii: 5.5 million
• DS: 1.6 million
• DS Lite: 7.5 million
• DSi: 370,000

GI.biz has more on this, as well as a great explanation for all the confusion between the charts.

ShortList.com journo Danny Wallace is to voice the Assassin’s Creed II character of Shaun Hastings, as confirmed here.

Hastings is a historian who advises knifey mentalist Ezio as he murders his way through Renaissance Venice.

Hit the link for an interview.

Rockstar, in association with Timbaland, has announced that Beaterator will arrive on PSP and PSN September 29 and October 2 in North America and Europe, respectively.

“Beaterator is a very natural progression for us,” said Rock Star’s Sam Houser. “Music is incredibly important to us here at Rockstar, and we believe that there are many people out there who share that passion and will be excited about creating music of their own.”

“I’ve worked closely with Rockstar Games to make something completely unique,” said Timbaland. “Beaterator is like taking my music studio and turning it into a suite of tools anyone can use. We can’t wait to hear the beats people make and share with the world.”

The music sequencer and sampler has been available on the web since 2005 and features thousands of loops and sounds made by both Timbaland and Rockstar.