Monthly Archives: September 2009

Ubisoft has recalled Patch 1.1 for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood.

Apparently, it was not meant to be released, as it was not the final patch.

“Since yesterday some websites offered for Patch 1.1 for Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood on PC to be downloaded,” said an official Ubisoft spokesperson. “This file is NOT the final patch and was wrongfully released prior to the deadline set by Ubisoft.

“Our teams are working on the final patch, which will be released in the coming days.”

So if you downloaded the patch, you may want to undo or wait until the official one is released.

Thanks, Blue.

In August, Nintendo hardware sales continued to increase month-to-month, with DS tops for the second month in a row, and Wii the second best selling console, again, for August.

Combined, DS and Wii moved 830,300 units while broken down, DS moved 552,900 and Wii 227,400.

“August NPD results showed an increase in month-to-month sales for both Wii and Nintendo DS hardware systems, demonstrating the continued appeal of our value-conscious products,” said Nintendo in a statement.

“For the fifth consecutive month, the Nintendo DS enjoyed outstanding retail performance, selling through twice as many units as any other system in August and breaking the record for monthly hardware sales for August.

“Wii is the only console that continues to consistently sell more than a quarter of a million units each month, as it has done in every one of the past 34 months since its launch in 2006.”

Nintendo had four of the top 10 best selling software titles, three being for Wii, which included: Wii Sports Resort moving 754,000 units, Wii Fit 128,000, Mario Kart Wii 120,000, and Fossil Fighters on DS moving 92,000 units.

VG247 has received an official statement from Courtney Love’s attorney, Keith Fink, Esquire, regarding Activision’s use of Kurt Cobain’s likeness in Guitar Hero 5.

Apparently, like we assumed, she is upset over Cobain being used to play other artists’ songs, which she finds detrimental to his image and legacy.

“You are correct in stating that Ms. Cobain is extremely upset at Activision’s use of Mr. Cobain’s image in a video game allowing him to sing songs of others,” Mr. Fink told VG247. “Kurt’s songs have a unique and special meaning to his fans and his image and legacy is extremely important to Ms. Cobain.

“Activision’s statement is not accurate in suggesting that they were given an unfettered use of Kurt’s name and likeness. The agreement Activision has with the trust doesn’t grant them the right to use his name and likeness in ways that denigrate his image.

“We are demanding the trust take appropriate action to protect Mr. Cobain’s image and would hope Activision would do so on its own accord and prohibit users of the game from singing songs of others.”

We have a feeling this is far from over, and you can catch up on all that happened yesterday through here, and here.

IGN’s put up the first review of Resident Evil 5′s PC version, and it’s glowing.

“It may not be a radically new Resident Evil 5, but the PC version of the game still manages to hold its own with an improved control scheme and extra Mercenaries mode,” said the site.

“While the addition of costumes is somewhat minor, and you may require a few upgrades to your computer to take full advantage of what the game has to offer, you’re exploring a great story and excellent gameplay.”

It’s worth a whopping 9.3/10. You’ll be able to buy it next Friday.

NCsoft MMO Aion now has more than 300,000 activated pre-orders ahead of its western launch later this month, Euro MD Véronique Lallier told VG247 yesterday.

“Aion’s starting to achieve nice numbers,” said the boss. “We are over 300,000 activated pre-orders in the West.

“It’s looking healthy. It’s nice and healthy two weeks before the launch… It looks very good at the moment.”

Aion project lead Christian-Peter Heimbach added that the game’s real western test will come post-launch.

“We have a strong belief in the game,” he said. “We know the quality… and we also have hard numbers, as Vero already confirmed. We’re happy to say that we’re really confident.

“The next thing to prove, of course, is that we can keep this up. I think there’s a solid audience out there eager to play a new MMO, so I think we’re on a good path.”

Aion releases on September 22 in the US and September 25 in Europe.

NCsoft Europe publishing MD Véronique Lallier has confirmed to VG247 that the company’s previously mentioned PS3 MOG has been shelved.

“We did an announcement a few years ago about signing a contract with Sony, and actually, to be honest, we didn’t put anything into the market,” she said, speaking at the publisher’s UK, Brighton office yesterday.

“We are not working on anything at the moment. The project we were working on was casual gaming, actually; not something we continued, unfortunately.”

Lallier added that console games are still part of the company’s “strategy, but nothing in the pipeline.”

The exec added that NCsoft is “still looking at opportunities” in the console space.

“This is my own opinion, and I’m not quoting NCsoft here: I think the platform is not console or PC, but it’s the internet,” she said.

NCsoft said in early 2008 that it was to announce and show its PS3 game towards the end of last year. Never more.

Update: We said in the original draft of this story that this game was an MMO. NCsoft’s asked us to clarify that the title was actually an MOG, and we’ve edited the piece to reflect this.

The FIFA 10 demo’s up on Live, says the Major.

Blurb:

EA SPORTS™ introduces FIFA 10 the latest release of the best-selling football franchise in history. Responding to consumer feedback from over 275 million online games played FIFA 10 refines an already potent game engine, focusing on what matters most to fans. FIFA10 brings you a variety of innovative improvements on game play including a breadth of new defensive and offensive options. From the new 360º dribbling to smarter defenders and refined goalkeeper AI, jostling, physical play and more make FIFA 10 the most complete simulation of football to date. Download the demo now and play as six of the world’s top teams to experience first-hand all the new features and improvements FIFA 10 has to offer.

Go. Go go go. Thanks, G1GAHURTZ.

Raven’s Wolfenstein’s moved 106,000 units in the US, a combined figure for all formats, Gamespot reports.

Not the best. It’s worth noting that Raven laid off 30-35 staffers the day after the game shipped.

Still. It’s got the best German accents in any game ever. And we should be thankful for that.

You can now buy Braid for £3.39 on Steam. That’s very cheap, so you probably should.

And that’s that. Thanks, EG.

US sales figures are the best. The highs; the lows; mainly the lows: it all adds up for an explosive mix of numbers, arrows and worried executives worrying about worrying.

Steph pulled the August figures to bits last night. See the result.

• August NPD: US game industry still in decline by 16%
• August NPD: Software sales – Madden NFL 10 clear winner
• August NPD Hardware: PS3 sales boosted by 72% over July
• Riccitiello says Madden NFL 10 sales are “discouraging”
• August NPD: Music game sales are down 46%
• Nintendo’s take on August NPD: DS sold twice as many units as any other system
• NPD: Households with kids up to 12 years account for 45% of industry’s revenue
• Pachter: Wii unit sales 50% below last year’s level, September sales to repeat
• Microsoft’s take on August NPD: “Only console to show overall growth this year”

Hot dog. Japanese PS3 sales rose to a spectacular 151,000 last week, thanks to the Slim’s introduction.

That’s it. There’s no other story. Compare this to the 40,000 PS3 sold in its first Slim week in the UK. Looks as though Japan really has been holding out for this.

Data for the week ending September 6. Last week’s chart here.

• PS3 – 151,783
• DSi – 60,419
• PSP – 22,184
• Wii – 21,557
• DS Lite – 8,309
• Xbox 360 – 6,827
• PS2 – 3,001

Two great interviews for you this week. I went to Irvine recently to see StarCraft II, and was lucky enough to get some face-time with Chris Metzen, Blizzard’s lore boss. Despite being a proper rock star, the guy’s switched on beyond belief. Hear him talk story in games, WarCraft III, SCII and loads more in this week’s recording. Really don’t miss this.

Very special interview number two is Stewart Gilray from the UK’s Just Add Water. The firm’s working on Gravity Crash for PS3 and PSP at the moment, and given the recent PS3 price drop we thought talking to a first-party dev would be interesting. Turns out we were right. Who knew?

The rest of this week’s show is me, Steph and Nathan talking about PS3 Slim, the fact PS3 sales have rocketed and how long we think the upside will stay up. Some of the sound quality in there’s a little flaky: sorry about that.

Have a listen. Again, because of the two interviews, it’s quite long this week, so here are the stamps:

• 0-16.18 – Pat, Steph and Nathan and the PS3 price cut and Slim’s introduction.
• 16.18-30.18 – Blizzard’s Chris Metzen on StarCraft II’s plot and loads more.
• 31.08-45.34 – Just Add Water’s Stewart Gilray on Gravity Crash.

Remember you can now subscribe to the podcast on the iTunes Store.

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Joystiq‘s posted a movie of Valkyria Chronicles 2 gameplay – get it after the break.

It’s a PSP affair, so no big sequel for its big PS3 brother, but don’t despair: the TRPG looks awesome.

Not sure when it’s out.

More »

GamesTrailers has confirmed that Lucidity is a real LucasArts project – get more from BigDownload.

The game’s a cartoony, downloadable affair for PC and 360, featuring a girl called Sophie that moves of her own free will.

The title’s been rumoured for months. Now you know. It’s out in September, apparently.

Well, that didn’t take long. We told you about Game Informer’s earth-shattering Crackdown 2 exclusive, like, two posts ago, and now the dream has become a reality. The leaked details are as follows:

• Pacific City, as rumored, hasn’t changed too much. But then, there’s a good reason for that. With a viral outbreak ravaging the land, we imagine architects have opted to take a few sick days. Well, maybe not “opted,” per se, as mutant/zombification is rarely optional.
• Note, however, that Pacific City will be a different place. Instead of new buildings springing up, though, old locations will be in varying states of disarray thanks to the outbreak.
• The shambling (and possibly leaping) mutants won’t be your only foes, either. A new organization called “Cell” will also send its goons after you, and will function more like a gang from the Crackdown of yore.
• Four player co-op. Music to our ears.
• 16-player deathmatch with a “Call of Duty-style” progression system? djfnjewnfnjnmcksmv – Sorry, drool and keyboards don’t mix.
• Civilians haven’t given up hope in the face of armageddon. Expect to see Pacific City’s good citizens take up arms and participate in “dynamic events.”
• You’ll still earn points in the same five stats, but they’ll unlock more varied abilities.

Thanks, CVG and IGN.

Tons more through the links.

Metal Gear games – which count fat men on rollerskates, ancient wheelchair-bound snipers, and immortal vampires among their standout features – have never exactly been “normal.” However, Peace Walker’s even got Metal Gear devotees doing double-takes, so you’ll be happy to hear that Peace Walker will be publicly playable at TGS.

According to Kotaku, you’ll be able to try Peace Walker at Konami’s booth or download it to your own PSP and peace walk the show floor.

Now then, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to start scanning Ebay for “PSP w/ Peace Walker demo.” We want us some Peace Walker, pronto!

Halo fanatics rejoice! Now, in addition to your Master Chief cat helmet, Cortana action figure, Halo: Fall of Reach book, and Halo-themed Slurpee cup, you’ll soon be able to bring some Halo action to your Xbox 360. Said the Halo Waypoint Twitter feed:

“Nov 5. Mark it on your calendar. That’s when you will get your hands (or controllers) on Halo Waypoint.”

Hands or controllers? Is this a hint that Project Natal’s also coming out on November 5, and will be compatible with Waypoint? Hey, we can dream, can’t we?

NPD Group’s Anita Frazier has stated that music game sales are down 46 percent year-on-year, and but unit sales are “down much less because lower prices are playing into the dollar sales decline.”

However, there looks to be a possible silver-lining with The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 both having debuted this month, so sales should be up for the genre when September figures are released next month.

Still, Frazier says that “it’s the third best-selling genre for the year after General Action and Multiple/Other Sports.”

Good to know.

The NPD numbers are in for the month of August, and the industry saw its sixth consecutive month-over-month decline, what with the 16 percent slip year-on-year.

While this is an improvement over the past few month, the decline can only be combated by climbing 14 percent aggregate for 2009 to “come in flat in comparison to 2008 sales,” says NPD Group’s Anita Frazier.

Combined sales of accessories, hardware, and software, and accessories totaled $908.72 million, which compared to $848.9 million in July, shows improvement, if only slight.

Accessories were only category to experience an increase over last year’s sales, and this surge in sales of peripherals and controllers owes thanks in part to the upward trend in hardware sales.

With the price cuts for PS3 and Xbox 360 just getting started, next month’s figures should prove to be more interesting, indeed.

The August NPD numbers are out, and while the industry as a whole was still down, Madden NFL 10 stole the charts by bringing in 928,000 followed by Wii Sports Resort w/WMP at 754,000.

Earlier, it was reported that EA CEO John Riccitiello was “disappointed” with Madden NFL 10 sales saying it was “discouraging”, that “one of our highest-rated and best-marketed ‘Madden’ titles in years is facing strong headwinds” during its debut.

1. Madden NFL 10 (Xbox 360) – 928,000
2. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo Wii) – 754,000
3. Madden NFL 10 (Playstation 3) – 665,000
4. Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360) – 303,000
5. Batman: Arkham Asylum (Playstation 3) – 290,000
6. Madden NFL 10 (Playstation 2) – 160,000
7. Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP) – 130,000
8. Wii Fit (Nintendo Wii) – 128,000
9. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo Wii) – 120,000
10. Fossil Fighters (Nintendo DS) – 92,000

Also of note, is that PS3 was the only platform to realize a year-over-year increase in total software sales and this is reflected in the top 10 list for the month which includes two PS3 games.