Monthly Archives: September 2009

Sony Japan Studios’ senior VP, Yasuhide Kobayashi, told attendees at DICE Asia that some Japanese companies struggle with sales outside the home market, and Koei seems to struggle the most with only 8 percent coming from outside of Japan.

This means that 91.8 percent of its sales come straight from the home market.

Following Koei is Tecmo with Japanese market sales at 89.6 percent, Square Enix at 86.6 percent.

“The Japanese market is really shrinking,” said Kobayashi, who feels that companies need to “develop [a] global title” in order to survive.

TGS is next week, so we could hear more on this from other sources.

Via Joystiq, Edge.

The embargo for reviews of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has lifted.

GamesRadar has released its review before anyone else so far, and should others follow suit – instead of searching all over the place, we will have as many of these as we can find listed for you here.

As more are released, we will update this post accordingly, so keep checking back.

• GamesRadar – 10/10
• GameBlog.fr – 5/5
• OPM US – 10/10
• IGN – 9.5/10

Over on Japanese Street Fighter IV blog, writer Natsuki Shiozawa promised that a solid announcement regarding a Street Fighter IV would be made in the near future.

Basically it was an announcement about an announcement, but surely Capcom would not even say that if one was in the works. Or would it?

Keep in mind that this does not mean it will be Street Fighter V, but a possible Alpha, Omega, Ultra, Mega, or Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious as the firm is wont to do.

According to Famitsu, SFIV producer Yoshinori Ono revealed that Capcom’s almost finished on SFIV versions of T.Hawk and Dee Jay. So that is something to keep in mind.

We’ll have to wait and see.

Via IGN.

Over on the Capcom Unity forums in a thread titled “Ask Capcom“, bossman Christian Svensson replied to a question regarding new game franchises and whether the company plans on creating any new ones for 2010, or if it plans on releasing more sequels to proven ones.

Apparently, its a balancing act, bu that does not mean Capcom is not going to take a risk with new IP ideas.

“If you wanted to take a more liberal view of something like TvC, you could call it a new franchise for us, even if it isn’t new IP (all characters have previously existed),” said Svensson, “and I’m sure some others I’m forgetting off the top of my head.

“Naturally, we always need to be introducing new IP so that we have some percentage of them “stick” to become ongoing franchises.

“But it’s always a balancing act both to keep fans happy and to manage risk.”

Svenseen went on to state that Capcom will “always be experimenting with new IP” and provided a list of games the current hardware generation has allowed to be created:

• Lost Planet
• Age of Booty
• Flock
• Dead Rising
• Zack & Wiki
• Spyborgs
• We Love Golf
• Dark Void
• Ghost Trick (recently announced)

Thanks, GoNintendo, NintendoEverything.

Oh ho ho! What’ve we got here? Halo 3 back on top of the XBL charts? Who would have thunk it?

It was inevitable, really, what with ODST coming out, but don’t fret for Call of Duty: Wolrd at War, it’s sitting pretty at number two.

Live Titles

1. Halo 3
2. Call of Duty: WaW
3. Call of Duty 4
4. Gears of War 2
5. Madden NFL 10
6. GTA IV
7. FIFA 09
8. FIFA Soccer 10 Demo
9. Batman: Arkham Asylum
10. Left 4 Dead

Arcade, Indie and Original titles are listed after the break, courtesy of the Major.
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During his keynote at GDC Austin, BioWare technical director Bill Dalton chatted about how “interdependencies can lead to problems in development on games”, and used The Old Republic MMO as an example, reports Gamasutra.

These “interdependencies” can lead to issues where the team gets frantic trying to do too much at once, and you just have to relax and realize that “things that are important early on in the project may not be important later on.”

“For any game these days, we have very large teams,” he said. “For MMOs, in particular, we have a lot of stuff going on. Everything everybody does is challenging. Producing the art, source code… So what do we do? I think it helps to understand what the different customers you have, as a technical worker on the game, are.

“It’s great in the early days to run wild and free. You need to avoid getting panic-stricken over the fact that you’re not generating game content, however, at some point, you really do need to say ‘This is it, this is how the game’s going to get delivered and we can’t be messing around with that stuff anymore’.”

Dalton showed case studies from the development of the game to demonstrate his problem-solving methodology when managing large teams, and if you are interested in how things work from a development standpoint on an MMO, it’s a rather interesting read.

Hit the link.

Four Endless Ocean 2 videos have shown up.

Like we told you once before, players can explore the ocean, come face to face with fish and other large creatures, and explore shipwrecks. You can sell loot to decorate your reef to attract more fish and dive with friends via Wi-Fi and use the mic to chat.

It’s out next year, and WiiFolder has all the lovely videos for it here.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Ubisoft has released the first developer diary for Avatar: The Game.

In it, you will discover things about the Avatar universe you didn’t know – if you knew anything to being with – and how it intersects with the film by James Cameron.

It’s a bit sparse on gameplay, but instead has Cameron and the developers chatting about the work that went into it, and hopefully the next diary in the series will show us a bit more of the game itself.

Game’s expected to be released close to the same time the movie’s out, in November, for DS, PC, PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360.

Thanks, Joystiq.

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Both publishers for Way of the Samurai 3 finally announced a release date in the US for the game.

Agetec will handle the PS3 version and UFO Interactive the Xbox 360 one, and both arrive in stores October 13.

Like previous iterations before it, choices you make in the game will affect how the story plays out but this time around, the fighting system was revamped, and the weapon creation bit has been expanded and retooled with 200 parts to work with.

An iPhone version of the game is up on the App Store, and according to D’toid, it looks to be more of a brawler. It’s also free for a limited time, so if you want it, check with your particular region to make sure it’s up before getting your hopes up.

If you think you’ve seen all the screens possible out there for FIFA 10, think again.

Over 33 screens for the game are posted on Gamikaze, and there’s bound to be one that you haven’t laid eyes on before.

Get it while it’s hot October 2.

Thanks, TomisH.

Hudson has put out a teaser for Bomberman Live: Battlefest, which is a Bomberman party game, and the music reminds you a bit of a funky Isaac Hayes groove for a Shaft-centric 70′s TV show.

Also, the video is explosive, and why would you expect anything else from a Bomberman game.

When released this winter, it will land on PSN, WiiWare and XBLA.

Video is below the break.

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If war is hell, then in the latest batch of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 screens, hell has frozen over.

There are guns, explosions, and snow. That’s pretty much all you need to know.

Gamikaze has them. Go take a look.

Thanks, TomisH.

If you were worried that Trine’s promising beginning would also be its untimely end, you can stop fretting now. Speaking with G4, Frozenbyte CEO Lauri Hyvärinen said that the swords ‘n’ sorcery-themed hop ‘n’ boppery will continue. Eventually.

“There will be certainly more Trine,” said Hyvärinen, “but in what form, platforms and such, that still remains a small secret of ours.”

2011. Fitness game. Colecovision. That’s our guess. What’s yours?

First Toys ‘R’ Us, then Target, and now Best Buy. Kotaku received the above flier from an alleged Best Buy tipster, and it looks mighty official to us.

The crowd’s gathering. “Off with its head!” they’re screaming. Then, a metallic flash. The Wii’s price tag sits, rent asunder, splurting $50 bills all about.

That’s the future, folks. Nintendo says the cuts are retailer-specific, but this heaping mountain of fliers begs to differ. Now then, Wii price tag, let’s have bit off the top, shall we?

The Xbox 360 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter that’s currently being tested by the FCC has been spotted on a promotional flier inside the Italian version of the Gears of War 2 Game of the Year edition.

What a mouthful.

Anyway, the Italian gaming site Mondobox got a hold of the flier and has posted it to its website.

If true, it looks as though the original adapter will be sold alongside of the new one, once its released.

We’ll contact Microsoft and see if anyone bites.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Sony told attendees at it’s PSP holiday showcase that Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake will feature 50 percent more content than its PSN counterpart, an expanded single-player, and a new map .

It will also contain a variety of modes not found on the original, one of which has the hat generators being busted at the beginning of a match, and you have to make repairs with the resources available before putting them to use.

Another mode revealed has players delivering a bomb to their opponents’ castle rather than removing it.

Neato. Still no exact date though, but it’s expected sometime between October and December.

More through Joystiq.

Treyarch has released Patch 1.6 for Call of Duty: World at War on PC and it adds Map Pack 3 to the mix.

There’s also a new set of mod tools updated to version 1.4 that supports the new patch.

The patch, mod tools and a separate patch for the German edition are available through many different sites, which you can find a list of through the link.

Thanks, Blue.

The Sims 3 expansion pack World Adventures will come packed with basement tools, which allow players to create underground structures with up to four levels.

EA has added tomb objects for exploratory adventures and purposes and certain ones -like the Fogger – hides unexplored areas from view, or hidden stairways which lead to secret passages.

Other objects include floor switches, traps that shoot fire, steam, electricity, darts and other neat Indiana Jones type stuff.

The expansion’s out November 17, and Kotaku has all you need to know on underground bits, but Sim Operations has the rest of the expansion detailed here, along with a teaser trailer.

Microsoft has announced that the first downloadable song for The Beatles: Rock Band, “All You Need is Love”, has become the fastest-selling bit of DLC in the franchise’s history – all within two days of being made available.

The proceeds from the DLC have so far equaled in the “tens of thousands of dollars”, and directly benefit the Doctors Without Borders charity.

Also, remember that cool Xbox 360 with Beatles artwork up for auction benefiting the charity? It sold for $17,300.

Good to hear.

Full press release is through the break.

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The ESRB has revealed through the US PS Blog that Sony has embedded the board’s Video Game Ratings Guide directly onto PSPgo.

Once accessed, it provides a walk through of ratings, categories and descriptions, and provides a tutorial for setting up parental controls.

However, Sony has said even though the guide is automatically included with PSPgo when you get it, it does not cost anything to access and if you don’t want or need it on there, you can delete it.

More through the link.

Thanks, GamePolitics.