Monthly Archives: August 2009

Hidden in its Q1 2010 financials, Square Enix has confirmed Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII has sold over 2 million units worldwide.

That’s 2.16 million copies to be specific, as of June 30 this year.

Here’s the region breakdown:

• Japan – 840,000 units
• North America – 770,000 units
• Europe – 550,000 units

More over at the Examiner.

Codemasters scored an insta-hit with Ashes 2009 in the UK this week; it’s gone straight in at number one.

The data below’s for the week ending August 8.

The BBFC’s given Brutal Legend a 15, as you can see here.

No cuts were made. It’s just another step towards ultimate Rocktober justice.

Schafer’s latest is out for PS3 and 360 on October 15.

Thanks, deftangel.

Tecmo just confirmed a Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Special Edition for an October 2 release for £50.

It’s an HMV exclusive, and can be pre-ordered here.

The pack contains, according to the PR you’ll find after the break:

• A copy of the game.
• Limited Edition 80 page ‘Ninja Gaiden Treasury’ featuring:
  - Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 prologue comic written and designed by Team Ninzja, “which sheds more light on the intriguing storylines of Ninja Gaiden.”
  - Character and concept art gallery.
  - “Lite-strategy guide”.
  - Commentary from producer Yosuke Hayashi.
• Soundtrack CD.
• Exclusive downloadable costume available through PSN.

Get a shot of the packaging, as well as a bunch of new co-op screens, after the drop.

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Namco Bandai announced it’s GamesCom line-up this morning.

Games confirmed include Tekken 6, Katamari Forever, Tales of Symphonia, Champions Online and more.

Here’s the full list:

• Tekken 6 (Playstation 3/Xbox 360)
• Dragon Ball: Rising Blast (Playstation 3/Xbox 360)
• Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo (Wii)
• One Piece Unlimited Cruise 2 (Wii)
• Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (Wii)
• Family Trainer: Extreme Challenge (Wii)
• Katamari Forever (Playstation 3)
• Champions Online (PC)

It all kicks off next week in Cologne, August 19-22, and we’ll be there. Obviously.

Press release is after the jump.

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Play.com’s now listing DJ Hero at £90, a significant climb-down from initial pre-order levels of £108.

HMV’s still punting the game for £100, while GameStation’s got it up for an amazing £110. So has Game.

Still no word at all on the Renegade Edition‘s pricing.

Square Enix president Yoichi Wada said in a Tokyo Q&A session last week that an FFXIII date will be announced in the next couple of weeks: most likely at Tokyo Game Show.

“We’ll be making an announcement in a few weeks,” said Wada.

The Square head honcho also confirmed the game will be at TGS next month, but in what form remains to be seen.

The RPG’s confirmed to release this winter in Japan for PS3, to be followed in the US for PS3 and 360 next spring. We’ve left an email with Square to see what is going on.

From IT Media, via Kotaku.

Let’s see those fingers. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has put a rough date on Wii’s Vitality Sensor for the first time, saying the peripheral will launch in 2010.

“We would like to deliver the actual product not too late in the year next year,” said the exec, speaking in an investor Q&A Nintendo posted in English yesterday.

Iwata then said that a “video game with a theme of relaxation” based on use of the peripheral is in the works at the company.

“We are conducting some tests internally at Nintendo, and found some patterns among our employees, like improving automatic nerve condition as the weekend nears or vice versa,” he said.

“Seeing what their condition is actually like, they can ‘visualize’ how they are looking forward to weekend. And see completely different patterns on each individual person.”

That actually sounds awesome. Hit the link and read answer five.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has told investors – in a Q&A related to the company’s 2008 full-year figures – that Wii and DS’s audience may even double before the consoles are done.

“Numerically there is still a possibility to even double the current user population of Wii and DS,” he said.

“Thus we do not believe at all that the expansion has come to an end nor do we need a new console any time soon.”

Iwata said in the same session that 209 million people actively use current gen Nintendo hardware.

The exec went on to trot out the usual stuff about the fact Nintendo’s R&D bods are constantly working on new hardware.

“Of course our employees are researching hardware and those in charge of hardware are already working on developing it,” he added.

“When our internal ideas and trend in the world match up, and when it’s clear that we would be able to manufacture an abundant amount at an affordable price, we will be able to publicly speak about next hardware.

“At this time, we do not think that is in the near future.”

Wii HD? Doesn’t sound like it, does it?

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata claimed in an investor Q&A on last year’s figures posted yesterday, that more that 200 million people now regularly use DS and Wii.

“Among the 295.6 million active users, 209.5 million people are playing with our products,” he said, the ‘active users’ figure a culmination of gaming populations in the US, Japan and the six major European countries.

“To tell you the truth, we at Nintendo had set 200 million as an internal milestone, and we already surpassed it this spring.”

Iwata explained that there are two types of Nintendo hardware owner – those that regularly use the machines, and those that do not.

“In the Japanese market there are more than 80 percent of active users who regularly use them, which is the highest worldwide, though there is also a fair amount of game players who play only on game systems other than Nintendo’s,” he said.

“That rate is especially high in the US, as 50 million out of 143.7 million are potential customers for Nintendo. We are making an effort to have them purchase our Wii and DS.”

Nintendo’s last-quarter financials showed a 40.1 percent drop in overall sales and a 60.6 percent drop in profits for the three months ending June 30.

A DirecTV listing has apparently confirmed that ageing rocker Ozzy Osbourne is to appear at Blizzcon next week, as reported by Wow.com.

Osbourne will be making a ” special appearance” at the event, although that’s all the info so far.

Blizzcon 2009 takes place on August 21-22 in Anaheim, CA.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said in the firm’s Q1 investor call this month – we think he did, anyway: this is according to NintendoEverything – that Nintendo’s E3 briefing was a bit rubbish. For shame.

“As for the media briefing at E3, of course we had many internal discussions after that,” he said.

“Honestly speaking, none of us at Nintendo thought that our presentation at E3 was as good as it could have been.

“It is apparent that we could not fully convey the charm of our products.”

Iwata explained that motion-based games from previous years are better to perform on stage. This year was a tough call.

“This year… with the New Super Mario Bros. Wii, four people lined up with Wii Remotes was not a scene that no one had ever seen,” he added.

There’s more through there.

Square’s “considering” releasing Dragon Quest IX outside Japan, according to Siliconera. Amazing!

Sort of. It’s not going to happen until 2010 at the earliest, apparently. Company boss Yoichi Wada said so in a Q&A last week.

The DS RPG’s now shipped more than 3.5 million units in Japan. Which kind of means it might be a good idea to do an English language version, at the very least.

So. Yeah.

Forbes has revealed the details of Bobby Kotick’s personal financial package. As you’d expect, it’s not exactly small.

The Activision Blizzard super-boss earned almost $15 million in salary, options and bonuses last year. Nice work if you can get it.

Full details in the image below. Thanks, GoNintendo.

Looks like a couple of those Acadia wine bottles 2K buried on beaches around the globe have already hit eBay.

Didn’t take long did it?

Three different listings have been posted so far – and as of this post, auctions are currently at $49.00, $76.00, and $86.00.

Surely each will be in the hundreds before the weekend is up.

Thanks, Gekidami.

EA Denmark has released the soundtrack goodies for Brütal Legend over on its official page.

There are more than 100 face melting metal tracks in the game, with music from the likes of:  Anvil, Black Sabbath, Carcass, Dokken, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Motorhead, Motley Crue, Ozzy, Ratt, Tenacious D, Whitesnake and so many, many others – it’s making our head spin, really.

Come on Rocktober.

Full list is posted after the break courtesy of Kotaku.

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Loads of stuff as usual going on this week with MMOs.

CCP has files a trademark fro Dust 514, which strangely enough resembles the EvE Logo, Warhammer’s latest patch is up on the test server, Guild Wars had some more class tweaks, and the summer festivities have been extended for Lord of the Rings Online.

Load of stuff, really. Read on past the break for more.

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Over at the 2K game forums, a poster has put up some pictures of a GameStop preorder promotion for BioShock 2.

Looks like if you preorder, you’ll get two exclusive multiplayer characters: Blanche the Actress and Zigo the Fisherman.

This is the first we have heard of these characters for game, let alone for the multiplayer portion.

GameStop rules the world, we reckon.

Thanks, Kokugamer.

Amazon has listed a Game of the Year edition for LittleBigPlanet, but without a release date.

The game is listed for $49.99 and contains “Bonus Content Valued at over $30″ which we can only conclude means the majority of what is already available via PSN.

No release date was posted with the listing, but Amazon is taking preorders, apparently.

More over on IGN.

[Update] Amazon must have moved the page or deleted it because it has suddenly vanished.

Monte Cristo Games has announced a limited edition for its MMO-style city simulation game Cities XL.

The goods inside the limited edition contain:

• Five additional maps for solo mode
• Five exclusive landmark buildings, (Berlin’s Victory Column, Kiev’s St. Vladimir’s Cathedral, New York’s 40 Wall Street, Paris’ Opera Garnier, San Francisco’s Grand Hotel)
• One exclusive city hall: Los Angeles’ City Hall
• Two permanent blueprints: the Mayan pyramid of Chichen Itza and London’s Big Ben. These blueprints will be available from the start and can be built as many times as you wish.
• A bonus in-game t-shirt to make your avatar even more unique
• An honorific medal to display proudly on your personal profile page on CitiesXL.com,
• Three postcards
• A 16″x13″ poster later this fall in the UK and other countries. This week the publisher released info on a special Limited Edition of the game that will have several unique in-game content bonuses than the standard edition of the game.

It’s out on October 8 in Europe, with a US release date to be announced.

Thanks, BigDownload.