Monthly Archives: August 2009

Resonance of Fate director Takayuki Suguro has claimed Sega is more open-mined with in terms of experimenting with RPG as a genre that the mighty Square Enix.

“Because SEGA has a more open attitude towards accepting new RPG ideas than Square Enix, we’d decided to have SEGA release End of Eternity,” the developer told GameMemo, using his project’s Japanese title.

Previously, Suguro worked on Square Enix titles Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics

Handbags. There’s more on Kotaku.

Nintendo’s patented an inflatable horse-riding seat controller thing, as you can see on Siliconera. Try not to laugh.

You blow it up, fit your Wiimote in it and sit on it. Or your kids do, at least.

You’re supposed to simulate riding on it, as the Nintendo patent describes, “a raised hand for balance as in Bronco riding, a lasso, a sword or other weapon, etc.”

Sounds amazing. Will never come out. Look at it anyway.

Nelson’s just confirmed that the 360 summer dashboard update is now live, along with the much-awaited Games on Demand feature

He points out that it’s a global roll-out and may not reach you for a few hours yet.

It’s a mandatory update.

Things to note:

• While you can browse and purchase Avatar items and full Xbox 360 games in the console with this update, the ability to add these items your Xbox 360 download queue from Xbox.com will be available this Thursday.
• Xbox LIVE integration with Twitter, Facebook and Last.FM will be available later this year.
• Zune Video Marketplace will also ship later this fall when it will replace the current Video Marketplace.

Go fetch!

Capcom UK’s just told VG247 that the 360 Platinum Triple Pack announced overnight won’t be releasing in Europe.

“It’s US-only,” said a rep.

The set includes Dead Rising, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition – Colonies Edition and Devil May Cry 4 for a stupidly awesome $40.

It’s releasing on September 8. In America. Curses.

The ESRB‘s rated Dino Crisis, Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis for PS3 in the US.

PSN release? Probably. Put the game titles in search there and see for yourself.

Thanks, SixthAxis and GAF.

A UK 360 developer has told VG247 that Project Natal isn’t exactly going to be some wishy-washy peripheral “thing”. Not on your nelly.

“Natal forms a huge part of Microsoft’s business plan going forward,” we were told. “The whole concept’s basically in lieu of releasing a new machine.”

“They’re putting so much behind it,” the source added, saying the launch was an obvious move after Wii’s market.

Motion-sensing system Project Natal was announced at E3 this year, and went undated.

Steve Balmer said in the reveal’s wake that 2010 would see the launch of a “new” Xbox with a “natural interface,” before apologising for his remarks.

Apologies or not, however, next year looked more solid in light of THQ boss Brian Farrell’s recent comments, which said the add-on will launch “late next year”.

Natal’s playable at GamesCom next week.

Remember S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat? It still hasn’t come out. In case you’d forgotten about it, have some new images.

This doesn’t actually have a publisher yet. It’s releasing this “autumn,” apparently.

GRIN has just refused to comment on overnight talk that it’s in danger of closing.

“At the moment we have no comment to anything [related to] that matter,” said a rep for the Swedish developer.

When pushed, the response became flatter.

“No,” said the spokesperson when asked if they could confirm any truth in the initial report.

“We’re not commenting.”

Another staffer told VG247 that all GRIN staff returned from a vacation yesterday. If this Gamasutra report is to be believed, they were met with bad news.

The story said that the Bionic Commando developer has seen “significant layoffs” and may be “facing difficulty staying afloat.”

GRIN’s Barcelona and Gothenburg offices have now apparently closed. Gama sources claim the company’s main Stockholm office may also be in jeopardy.

The company was rumoured to have laid off between 100-160 staff in May, following Bionic Commando’s release.

Dead Rising; Lost Planet: Extreme Condition – Colonies Edition; Devil May Cry 4; for Xbox 360 – in one pack. For $40. On September 8.

Sounds great. But that dollar symbol means this is “American”. Will it happen in Europe? Only Capcom knows. Capcom’s asleep in the UK at the moment. But we’ll be right up its pipe when it gets out of bed.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Gama’s reporting that Bionic Commando developer GRIN has seen “significant layoffs” and may be “facing difficulty staying afloat.”

The news comes from “reliable development sources,” apparently.

The company was rumoured to have laid off between 100-160 staff in May, following Bionic Commando’s release.

Why has Microsoft Australia priced Mass Effect 6,000 MSP? Kotaku asked. Here’s the response:

No one retailer has the lowest pricing for every product, and our program is about giving people 24 x 7 convenience and selection when shopping for Xbox 360 games.

We’re incredibly excited about what Games on Demand means for digital distribution, and will continue to evaluate and evolve the service to meet market and consumer demands.

And there you have it. You can be thankful you’re paying $100 for an old RPG, Australians. At least you don’t have to leave the house.

The latest OneLifeLeft’s up now, featuring… me. Here me describe GamesCom as Tom Cruise in a flat spin heading out to sea. I have absolutely no idea why I said that. But I did.

We talk about news, VG247, GamesCom, Sony’s press conference, PS3 price cuts and other things.

Go on.

Yeah. It’s all in the title. Tim Schafer’s pretty amazing at solving Rubick’s Cubes, and the woman… can read! Who can perform their respective task faster? Watch the video to find out!

It’s after the break.

More »

Like you expected any less.

1UP has seven new screens of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and — unsurprisingly — they look great.

There’s tundra, jungle, and explosions — so basically, Uncharted 2 in a nutshell. You’ll also find a couple shots of Nathan Drake acting as a crutch for wounded allies. That loveable rascal.

Click through the link to see them all.

In the beginning, there was Bullfrog. And it was good. Then it got dissected and assimilated into the EA biomass, and Peter Molyneux ran off to form Lionhead Studios. The result? Bullfrog kicked the bucket, and gamers have been clamoring for series revivals ever since. Fortunately for those gamers, comments from EA’s Harvey Elliot would seem to indicate that the outlook is bright.

“For me, I love the old Bullfrog IP, it got me really passionately into games, and I’m really proud that Bullfrog is part of the heritage of Bright Light”, he said, speaking with Kikizo. “I’m personally a huge fan of Populous and Theme Park, they were some of my favourite games – many years ago, obviously – and I’d love to see both of those remade.”

“I’m going to look at them at some point, I think there’s an opportunity to bring those back in the future, but only if it’s right for the time and not just a ‘remake’ or something. We’d need to do it in a way that’s true to the original values, but would still make a great game today.”

Fingers crossed, people.

After taking a $117 million hit from Eidos, Square Enix’s financials are looking a little worse for the wear. The two-headed Japanese giant posted a net loss of 1.67 billion yen for the quarter ending on June 30.

Sales were also down 1.2 percent when compared to the same period last year, coming in at 29.4 billion yen. In spite of that, though, the company’s games division performed quite well, with sales up 7.2 percent. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Final Fantasy XI (yes, XI) were listed as reasons for this upswing.

Other than that, though, Square Enix is basically doomed. We can’t, for the life of us, think of anything that might pull the company out of this slump. We guess they have that little DS game they released last month. Uh, Large Fictional Lizard Adventure, was it? But who even bought that?

Thanks, Industry Gamers.

Oh job listings, you just keep making our job easier.

According to a job listing over at 2K Boston, the original big daddies of BioShock are currently working on an “unannounced shooter.”

Big Bioshock, we know, but it’s still nice to at least have a tiny morsel of concrete info on the game.

Click the link for the full listing.

Major League Gaming‘s upcoming Dallas event will play host to the first ever Halo 3: ODST public play session. There’ll also be Major League Gamers doing their thing, but why watch when you can play?

The ODST station’s open on August 29, and you’ll have to register for a time slot if you want in on the action. Entrance to the show costs $20, though, so unless your life somehow hinges on your ability to play ODST early, you might want to consider dropping said coin on a copy of the game instead. It’s out in September, in case you haven’t been blitzed by a marketing campaign yet.

So that’s that.

No, not those classics. But come on, you can play those golden oldies on everything short of the Colecovision these days. So instead, the Wii’s getting Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi “in the coming weeks.”

On top of that, “additional classic LucasArts games” are coming after the “coming weeks,” though no specifics were given.

Thanks, Shacknews.

WoW.com‘s claiming to have found its way through Blizzard’s impenetrable cone of silence, resulting in the news that Worgen and Goblins will soon be playable in World of Warcraft.

Apparently, Worgen will join the Alliance, while Goblins will, unsurprisingly, park their ugly little tuckuses on the Horde side of the map.

Well, there goes one rather large BlizzCon announcement. More leaks to come before the big show, we’re sure. Drip, drop, drip, drop.