Monthly Archives: October 2009

Oddworld Inhabitants co-founder Lorne Lanning has announced on the US PS Blog that Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus will be released on the PlayStation Store this Thursday for $9.99.

“We couldn’t have been more thrilled when we learned that the PlayStation Network was willing to offer our classic Abe games to an entirely new generation of gamers,” said Lanning.

“Finally, gamers who never got the chance to meet and play him when he first came out on the PSone system, will now get that chance to meet the guy who graced many magazine covers and proved the unlikely hero that captured people’s hearts.”

As for when Munch’s Odyssey and Stranger’s Wrath are coming to the PSN, Lanning said they are looking at ways to bring them over.

“We’re working on a strategy to bring them over as well. May take us awhile, but we hope to achieve what you’re asking for.”

Find more through the links.

According to just-released NPD figures, September saw a “modest increase” YoY between September ’08 and September ’09. In fact, last month was the second bestselling September in the US since 2007, which was so high thanks to the release of Halo 3.

“The industry managed a modest increase over September 2008, and generated the second bestselling September on record after 2007 when Halo 3 released and sold over 3 million copies that month,” said NPD’s Anita Frazier.

“On a unit sales basis, the industry was flat. The increase in revenues is driven by a rise in average retail prices in all categories with the exception of console hardware in which the average retail price decreased 8% from last September.

“Across all categories, the Xbox 360 platform contributed the most to industry unit and dollar sales as sales of 360 hardware, software and accessories comprised 32% of the month’s revenues.

“All three console manufacturers enjoyed the impact of lower prices on unit sales as the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 realized an increase over August of 87%, 33%, and 31% respectively, on an average sales per week basis (keeping in mind September was a 5-week month compared to 4-weeks in August).”

The full note is after the break.

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Halo 3: ODST has outright won the software front in the September NPDs, selling over 1.5 million units in the month.

Wii Sports Resort (442k) and Madden NFL 10 for the Xbox 360 (289k) rounded off the top three in the software charts.

Beatles: Rock Band for the 360 beat Guitar Hero 5 for the 360, with 254k in fourth compared to GH5′s 210k in ninth.

The Wii version of Beatles rounds off the top 10 with 208k units sold.

Full list is below.

1. Halo 3:ODST (360, Microsoft) – 1.52 million
2. Wii Sports Resort (Wii, Nintendo) – 442.9K
3. Madden NFL 10 (360, EA) – 289.6K
4. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS, Nintendo) – 258.1K
5. The Beatles: Rock Band (360, MTV/EA) – 254K
6. Madden NFL 10 (PS3, EA) – 246.5K
7. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (360, Acti Blizz) – 236K
8. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3, Square Enix) – 212.5K
9. Guitar Hero 5 (360, Acti Blizz) – 210.8K
10. The Beatles: Rock Band (Wii, MTV/EA) 208.6K

Price-cuts and Slim’s launch have done wonders for PlayStation 3 in this month’s NPD: the console sold over 491k in the US September.

DS was the overall best selling hardware though, with sales of 524k. Wii sold 462k, Xbox 360 managed 352k, and there were sales of 190k for PSP and 146k for PlayStation 2.

Full list is below.

• Nintendo DS – 524.2K
• PlayStation 3 – 491.8K
• Wii – 462.8K
• Xbox 360 – 352.6K
• PSP – 190.4K
• PlayStation 2 – 146.0K

PlayStation 2 146.0K
PlayStation 3 491.8K
PSP 190.4K
Xbox 360 352.6K
Wii 462.8K
Nintendo DS 524.2K

HALO 3:ODST 360 MICROSOFT (CORP) Sep-09 1.52M 1
WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Jul-09 442.9K 2
MADDEN NFL 10 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Aug-09 289.6K 3
MARIO & LUIGI:BOWSER’S INSIDE STORY NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA Sep-09 258.1K 4
THE BEATLES:ROCK BAND* 360 MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS Sep-09 254.0K 5
MADDEN NFL 10 PS3 ELECTRONIC ARTS Aug-09 246.5K 6
MARVEL:ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 2 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD (CORP) Sep-09 236.0K 7
BATMAN:ARKHAM ASYLUM* PS3 SQUARE ENIX INC (CORP) Aug-09 212.5K 8
GUITAR HERO 5* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD (CORP) Sep-09 210.8K 9
THE BEATLES:ROCK BAND* WII MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS Sep-09 208.6K 10

A petition railing against Infinity Ward’s intention to drop dedicated server use in Modern Warfare 2 has hit 77,308 signatures.

Infinity Ward’s Rob Bowling said over the weekend that a new system called IWnet will be used for matchmaking in MW2 PC multiplayer games.

“You’re completely reliant on IWNet and there is no dedicated server or server list. You rely on IWNet for matchmaking and your games, but you still have your private matches,” he said.

Expect this to run and run.

The game’s out on November 10.

Cryptic’s Craig Zinkievich has told VG that Star Trek Online’s keyed in for a first quarter 2010 launch, and that the MMO’s beta is on the verge of launching.

“Without giving you the date, which I’m not allowed to give out or else the marketing people will come and smack me in the back of the head, I can tell you that the game will be out the first quarter of 2010,” he said.

Zinkievich added: “The closed beta is really just right around the corner. I think that there’s a press release that’s going to go out in just a couple of days.”

Good news. Thanks, Joystiq.

Nelson‘s confirmed that this week’s Arcade games will be Panzer General: Allied Assault and Tower Blox Deluxe.

Both will go for 800 MS points.

And that’s your Arcade round-up for this week. Merry Christmas!

Nelson’s confirmed that unMicrosoft 360 storage devices won’t work with the machine when its November software update goes live.

“One of the changes is that unauthorized Memory Units will no longer work with the Xbox 360,” said the exec.

“If you’ve moved your profile or saved games onto one to ‘back it up,’ you’d better move it back onto an authorized Xbox 360 storage device prior to taking the update.

“If you continue to use an unauthorized Memory Unit after the update, you will not be able to access your stored profile or saved games.”

Nice.

For a look at some of the update’s features in action, take a look at this.

FIFA 10′s sold “comfortably” more than 1 million units in the UK in three weeks, Chart-Track said today.

The game beat FIFA 09 to the million milestone by three weeks.

As reported earlier, FIFA 10 managed to hold off Uncharted 2′s launch last week to to keep hold of its top chart slot.

It’s that time of week! It’s the weekly Nintendo releases.

On WiiWare, you get LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias and Shootanto: Evolutionary Mayhem. Meanwhile, DSiWare gets games which have Domo at the end of their names. The VC gets Rygar to cap off this week’s releases.

Find full info through the jump.

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Rocksteady dev boss Sefton Hill’s told Gama that there are “too many games out there that deliver lots of average content,” adding that “doing less” in terms of features ensured Batman’s high quality.

“Some of the things that we really wanted to achieve were for Batman himself, so we didn’t want to overstretch with a driving section with its own mechanic and requirements, and take that development time away from the things that were important for Batman himself,” he said.

You can’t argue with numbers: Arkham Asylum’s done more than 2 million now. Shame Hill didn’t name names. You should man up, Sefton. Call out the averagers. Take them to school.

There’s an interview here.

Lead Designer on Crackdown 2 Steve Iannetta has revealed in an interview with Joystiq that the back story to Crackdown 2 is based on a mission that happens in the first game.

The sequel takes place ten years after the original, where the Shi-Gen from the original game are now commonly known as The Freaks in CD2 after releasing the prisoners from the corp in the first game.

“Well “The Freaks” were from the first game. The Shi-Gen – once you killed the boss — you unleashed the freaks into the world. Basically it’s a continuation of that,” said Iannetta.

“It’s ten years later and because of your actions you’ve turned the city into, basically, a living hell. Nighttime is just “freak” time. You can’t go out at night. Daytime civilians are scurrying about trying to get themselves the necessities of life and when it comes to dusk you’ll see them scuttling home.”

Game’s out in 2010 for the 360.

Amanita Design’s Machinarium is now available from its official site, Steam, D2D and Impulse.

There’s a three-level demo of the adventure title on the official site, too.

Thanks, Blue.

Microsoft’s released a Halo Waypoint video – after the break – detailing the point behind the upcoming Halo fan’s Live home.

There’s two bits to it, basically: “Intel” and “Career”. Intel’s just tons of stuff from the Halo universe in general, including fiction, upcoming anime, and so on. The Career bit tracks your accomplishments across multiple Halo games. ODST, Halo 3 and all DLC related to them are supported at launch.

It’s out in November. Thanks, Joystiq.

Update – IGN’s posted up some shots.

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Unsurprisingly, the PSP version of GTA Chinatown Wars is scoring highly in its first reviews, a line-up of which you’ll find below.

If you’re looking for a PSP game this “holiday,” Rockstar’s latest is a bit of a no-brainer. Here’s why:

• Eurogamer – 9/10
• CVG – 8.7/10
• 1UP – A-
• NowGamer – 9.5/10
• Videogamer – 10/10

If you’ve got a review you want listing, just drop us a line in the comments.

First pics of a new Sega arcade cabinet have apparently confirmed the existence of an HD Daytona remake.

The game – named Sega Racing Classic – runs at 1280×720, and was teased in a bit of arty recently.

No news of a home port. We suggest you shouldn’t expect any, either.

Via Arcade Heroes and IGN UK.

3D Realms’ George Broussard has pinned Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series up with the very best after playing the heavily-hyped second game.

“Amazing single player experiences,” he said, writing on the Shack forums.

“Nearly, if not, on par with Half-Life 1/2. I haven’t felt this giddy over a game series since Half-Life.

“This is epic badassery right here. Believe the hype.”

Uncharted 2 is on the verge of history, still being listed as the highest-rated PS3 exclusive of all time on Metacritic at 96 percent.

Kotaku’s posted up three videos of the forthcoming Twitter 360 update being put through its paces. Watch them all after the break.

There’s a movie there of Twitter and Facebook being used, one of Last.fm being trialled and another of stuff that didn’t work properly. Like 1080p streaming.

The update’s happening next month.

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Grasp some straws and take with a pinch of salt as always, but this could be big.

In the latest issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine, the magazine reports that Killzone 3 is in development at Guerrilla Games, and is actually being planned for a 2010 release.

The mag also mentions a sequel to Call of Duty: World at War from Treyarch and Resistance 3, but Killzone 3 is the big one.

The game wasn’t expected this soon, considering Killzone 2 only got a release this February after four years in development.

Exciting, yes. But do take with a pinch of salt.

From D’Toid.