Monthly Archives: August 2009

Americans that take the plunge with a new PSPgo handset are to be given a free Rock Band Unplugged demo along with the hardware, according to this Kotaku piece.

Which is great. If it wasn’t for the fact that Europeans get a free copy of GT PSP.

The US offer’s a bit more than a standard demo, thankfully. It comes with five songs and it compatible with any tracks you buy from the PS Store.

But still.

Soon-to-be-launched Cryptic MMO Champions Online will see a minimum of three and most likely four proper content updates every year, chief creative officer Jack Emmert has told VG247.

“I think our battle plan is four a year, but we might have to scale that down to three a year; I don’t know,” said the developer, talking in our latest podcast.

“But certainly our goal is that every three months there’s something new being added to the game.”

Emmert added that new content would be put out “very, very regularly. I think launch day, you can pretty much guarantee you’ll be soon learning exactly what we’re going to be doing for free content. We learned that it’s absolutely vital to keep stuff flowing as a very, very constant rate.”

Paid or unpaid? Both.

“We are definitely planning on doing” paid expansions, Emmert said.

“When I say four updates a year, that would be including any paid content. There will definitely be free content, but in addition.”

Champions Online hits both the US and Europe next week.

here’s a video of Tim Curry and Kate Mulgrew recording VO for Dragon Age after the break. Professional to a ridiculous degree.

Watch it. The BioWare RPG’s out in November.

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Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has agreed with EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich’s comments yesterday on this week’s 360 price cut not being a significant sales driver, saying that “a substitution of hard drives and box color at the same price point shouldn’t do much for sales”.

Pachter, however, has disagreed with Divnich on the matter of the 360 Elite coming down further to $249 from the new price of $299 within a year, predicting the machine will stay where it is unless sales start slipping.

“Microsoft is happy with its level of sales, and unless it sees sales down significantly year-over-year, they will probably stay at the $299 price point,” Pachter told VG247.

“It’s hard to say how much of a boost Sony gets (I think 50-60%), and whether this comes from overall increases in console sales or from taking share from the other guys. If Sony’s sales go up 100%, and Microsoft’s go down 20% or more, we may see a $50 price cut on the 360. That’s a lot of ifs.

“The only way I see 360 sales suffering is if Sony does a great job of advertising, and if Nintendo also cuts price.

“Since it’s too early to call either, I’d venture a guess that Microsoft will stay put at $299.”

Nelson brings word of a Fight Night Round 4 demo on Live.

The tester feature Ali and Tyson. Get the blurb through the link.

There’s a couple of Modern Warfare 2 movies after the break showing Spec Ops play as well as single-play in the game’s Rio section.

It’s hot, Ringo. There’s a lot of shooting and grenade-throwing going on there.

Take a look. It’s out November 11.

Thanks, davidkenobi and Xboxygen.

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Microsoft’s cleared up yesterday’s tooing-and-froing on whether or not Facebook and Twitter will only be available to Gold Live members. In short, Silver member will get the soc media networks, but only for a “trial period”.

The platform holder told VG247 in a statement this morning:

Facebook and Twitter on Xbox LIVE will be free to Gold members, with a free trial period also available for Silver members. Facebook and Twitter on Xbox LIVE will offer a truly one-of-a-kind social experience, completely optimized for the TV and seamlessly integrated onto your console. Add to that exclusive access to Last.fm, Netflix instant streaming, demos, trailers and discounts, plus the best multiplayer gaming network on the planet, and we’re confident Xbox LIVE Gold memberships is hands-down the best value in home entertainment. We’re committed to adding new features and value for our Gold members, and will continue to do so.

And that’s that. Facebook and Twitter hit 360 this year.

Next.

Amazon Germany appears to have pulled a listing for a 250Gb 360 bundle – it used to be here.

According to Engadget, the retailer was offering the 250Gb HD, two wireless controllers and Forza Motorsport 3 for €279 euros.

Bargain. Forza 3 ships on October 23. We’ll drop MS a line.

Kotaku’s got some new FFXIII shots showing new characters Lieutenant Colonel Jihl Nabaat of the Holy Army and Yaag Rosch.

There’s some stuff there on the horsey summon in Germany last week, as well.

It’s out on PS3 this winter in Japan and next spring on both 360 and PS3.

That’s what announcing a slim console does for you. PS3 racked up a hilarious 2,052 sales in Japan last week, making it the lowest selling games hardware in the market.

Mind you, the only machine it managed to beat in the previous week was PS2.

Data below for the week ending August 23.

• DSi – 59,578
• PSP – 27,187
• Wii – 26,972
• Xbox 360 – 8,979
• DS Lite – 5,735
• PS2 – 3,295
• PS3 – 2,052

Weekly sales of Dragon Quest IX have dropped below 100,000 units for the first since its July launch in Japan, with Nintendo’s Tomodachi Collection taking the top spot.

DQIX fell to 79,000 units for the week ended August 23, according to Media Create, down from the prior week’s 127,000 units. The game has sold over 3.7 million units in Japan to date.

Get more from Gama.

Basically, PS3 Slim uses about half the power of of the “old” machine. We know, because Crave‘s tested it. And we believe Crave. Because there’s no reason not to.

Look how green Sony is, eh? Read that article, then go and buy one. Or two. You could buy two, run them side-by-side and be ruining the environment just as much as you were before. Awesome.

Lots going on this week. The latest episode in our amazing podcast features Cryptic legend Jack Emmert on the imminent launch of anticipated MMO Champions Online, as well as EG.net dep ed Ellie Gibson talking to Steph and I about the mighty GamesCom.

There’s mention of sausages and sex with aliens in there, as well. What more do you want? Play it in your browser; download it: the choice is yours.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

EA chief creative officer Rich Hilleman reckons consoles are now struggling to keep pace with lightning-speed changes in the games space, and that we won’t see new full hardware launches any time soon.

“I expected we’ll see a PlayStation 3.5 before we see a PlayStation 4 and an Xbox 560 before we see an Xbox 720,” he told VentureBeat.

“The biggest shift is how fast packaged goods games are changing and going away.”

Hilleman also said future acceptance of gaming will be absolute, as older non-gamers die off and the current, 35 year-old, generation of players demanding that their games follow them everywhere no matter what the platform.

Interesting stuff. Have a Friday read.

Rockstar’s confirmed a September 1 date for the first Gay Tony trailer.

Hopefully it’ll feature that woman with the champagne. The MS US po-faces must be having little heart attacks over their exclusive gay bottle-wanking game. Serves them right.

The second piece of 360′s GTA IV DLC is down for an October 29 release.

Steam has put the THQ Collector Pack up for sale, and it’s a rather decent deal.

Until this coming Sunday, you can get the bundle for $74.99, which is 25 percent off the normal $99.99 price tag.

Here’s what you’ll get:

• Company of Heroes
• Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
• Frontlines: Fuel of War
• Full Spectrum Warrior
• Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers
• Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
• Titan Quest
• Titan Quest – Immortal Throne
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Gold Edition
• Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War – Soulstorm
• Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II

Head on over to Steam and see for yourself.

Sony has announced that MotorStorm Arctic Edge PSP will arrive in stores September 29. You can get it in UMD format or through PSN when entering a voucher code on October 1 for PSPgo.

Also, those who preorder the game will become the proud new owners of the exclusive Mirage Rapide rally car for the game. It has two customizable skins, and should you not be able to preorder, you can still get it providing you purchase the game within 30-days of launch.

PS2 users can get in on the fun as well, this fall.

More over on the US PS Blog. Watch the video below.

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Avatar: The Game for PSP will be able to communicate with the PS3 version or the game, according to reports.

Sounds like another Ubisoft title you may have heard about. Assassin’s Creed 2.

Anyway, one of the features is the ability to transfer “Effort Points” from PSP game to PS3.

According to the October issue of PlayStation:The Official Magazine, the PSP version has players taking on the roll of a Na’vi warrior and these “Effort Points” transferable through both games will give your characters a bit of a boost.

More should be revealed when the new issue lands.

Via Joystiq, per IGN.

Capcom has announced that Fate/Unlimited Codes, specifically designed for the PSPgo, will be made available next week on September 3 via PSN.

Developed by Eighting, the game contains 17 playable characters, 8 game modes, over 250 stage mission, and more.

There is a video after the break, and more information is posted over on the US PS Blog.

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While speaking with GI.biz, EA president Frank Gibeau told the site that Dante’s Inferno has a “tighter” consumer position than Dead Space because the game’s location is a place everyone is familiar with. Hell.

“I think when you look at Dante’s Inferno you start with something that everybody has some knowledge of, which is Hell, and the idea that you go into Hell as a hero and fight demons… that’s something that resonates with a lot of people,” he said.

“So we found early on that the game, tied to the poem, had an interesting angle to it that allowed us to really step into the concept of going to Hell and fighting. What we’ve found so far – among them anger, lust, treachery, gluttony – everyone can relate to those things.

“Everybody knows about the River Styx, the nine circles – it’s just one of those things where people… vampires, zombies, Hell – there are certain perennial things that people gravitate to for great story-telling back-drops, and in Dante’s that’s been easily the thing that’s worked.”

The full interview is through the link above, and while a long read, it’s a damn good one.

Thanks, D’toid.