Monthly Archives: October 2009

BusinessWeek has named Nintendo as the world’s “best company,” using criteria such as “commitment to innovation, diversified portfolios, aggressive expansion, strong leadership, and a clear vision for the future” as reasoning for putting the Wii-maker top.

We’re pretty sure that can be translated as “made lots of money,” but what do we know? Google and Apple came second and third, for the record.

American people: if you’re planning on buying Zipper’s MAG for PS3 in January, you could do worse than pre-ordering it from 7-Eleven. As detailed in this US PS Blog post, you’ll get a “recruitment kit and poster” for your loyalty.

Just think about that for a second. A MAG poster of your very own. Now buy, soldier. The game’s out on January 26.

The next generation in wireless technology’s almost here and, well, it’s looking pretty expensive. According to a listing on GameStop’s website, the Xbox 360′s wireless N adapter is coming on November 3, and though it may be wire-free, there’s still one very thick string attached: a $99.99 price tag.

The regular Xbox 360 wireless adapter currently carries the same weighty price tag, so with any luck, it’ll slim down a bit before Captain N hits the shelves.

Capcom’s been wracking its collective brain as to what form Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition’s Western release should take, and has decided to put the fate of its multi-million dollar franchise in your hands. DLC or fancy-shmancy box, with a real instruction manual and everything? It’s up to you.

“Here’s where we’re at: in Japan, Alternative Edition will be released as a new physical package, with all that entails: new box art, new manual, new shiny disc, another plastic box to add to a tottering stack of console games. This makes absolutely perfect sense for the Japanese gaming market, where the uptake of digital content is a bit behind the western markets,” reads a post on the Capcom Unity blog.

“However, based on the success of the RE5 ‘Versus’ downloadable content, as well as digital-only titles like Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Marvel VS Capcom 2, we know that the demand for DLC in the west is huge. More and more, gamers in North America and Europe want content immediately and are less inclined to be tied to boxes and packages.”

Go rock the vote at Capcom’s blog.

UK retailers have already started dropping the price of PSPgo, with Amazon, Play, GAME and HMV now selling the machine for £199.99.

It was £224.99 when it launched last week.

SCEE said earlier today that PSP hardware sales have risen 100 percent since PSPgo released on October 1.

Thanks, EG.

Looks as though Call of Duty is about to take the rather obvious step into filmdom.

Firstly, Infinity Ward’s Rob Bowling confirmed today he was “grabbing lunch” with Xavier Gens, director of the Hitman movies and was “talking game films”.

Secondly, Trademork did some sniffing this afternoon and found that the Call of Duty license has been reserved for film use. The registration was only made on September 21.

As long as its got a snowmobile and a nuclear bomb, we’re happy. All of this could mean nothing, obviously. Don’t blame us if Xavier was Rob’s date, or something.

Zero Punctuation ranter Yahtzee’s moved beyond a pilot for Australian games show Game Damage, releasing a round-up video of what to expect from its first season. See it after the break.

Looks a lot like the pilot, non-oddly. Not sure when episode one’s going to appear.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

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Trackmania developer Nadia’s sold out to Ubi, it’s been confirmed today.

Did you know Trackmania’s played by 700,000 people a month? Well, it is.

“The acquisition of Nadeo is an important step in our expansion within the on-line gaming sector”, said super Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft’s mega-boss.

“Through Nadeo, Ubisoft will gain an expert team, one of the best on-line technologies around as well as a flagship multiplayer game that enjoys an unrivalled reputation among a loyal and committed community.

Trackmania 2 was announced recently for a 2010 ship.

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Valve’s to spend $25 million on advertising Left 4 Dead 2, the company just confirmed.

“Based on the strength of pre-orders, Left 4 Dead 2 will be the fastest-selling product in Valve’s history,” said company boss Gabe Newell.

“Left 4 Dead 2 has consistently run at 300 percent of Left 4 Dead’s numbers.”

For the record, the first game got a $10 million campaign. Small change.

PR after the break.

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Capcom’s Chris Kramer told GT that the PS3 version of Resident Evil 5′s Alternative Edition will be giving more than a little love to the machine’s upcoming motion tech.

“They’re going to be using motion controller on PS3 from top to bottom, going in from movement to combat,” he said.

“I’ll be very interested to see it in practice.”

Kramer added that 360 owners may want to start whistling if they’re after similar motion controls for the game, although it sounds as though the team’s planning some good shit for the other SKU, yo.

“I haven’t heard anything about Natal right now,” the PR boss added. “The team’s said it’s focusing on motion control support for the PlayStation 3 platform, and they’re thinking very hard about what they can offer to be of an equal level of interest for 360 players.”

Watch Kramer speak after the break. PS3′s motion tech ships next spring.

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Game Informer’s put the world’s first Dragon Age: Origins review live on its site, giving the BioWare RPG 9/10.

As we’re being told by frothing PC journalists every 10 minutes, it’s good:

In the middle of reviewing Dragon Age, I had a couple vacation days scheduled. During my long out-of-state weekend, the game was constantly popping into my mind – how I could have won a fight differently, or how I might spend my next few talent points. As soon as my flight landed back in Minneapolis, I didn’t even fight the urge; I drove straight into the office and spent an entire Sunday night in front of the computer fighting darkspawn and saving Ferelden. The number of titles that can foster this level of dedication and obsession are few, and Dragon Age: Origins is among the best of them.

It’s out on 360, PC and PS3 in November.

In-games ads. Remember them? Microsoft hasn’t forgotten. It’s in-game ads revenue is going crazy ape shit, according to JJ Richards, Microsoft’s Massive in-game ad boss.

“For our 2009 fiscal year, Massive achieved an impressive double-digit year-on-year revenue growth in the face of one of the worst economic crises of the last century,” said Richards in a blog post.

“We’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel and Massive already exceeded first quarter sales targets by more than 100 percent just one month into our new fiscal year.”

The good times are most definitely rolling, the exec added, as Massive has now booked it thousandth client campaign, “a sign of our continued momentum since selling our first dynamic ad four years ago.”

Others involved in the in-game ads trade have been thumping chests behind the scenes, recently. Hit the link to get pumped.

Activision has confirmed to Eurogamer that DJ Hero will see a UK release on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii on October 30.

It comes as Acti started promoting the game alongside Guitar Hero 5 in the UK alongside the 360 in TV ads, which also showed the Oct 30 date.

Well, now you know.

EA and IDW have entered into a partnership together to launch comics based on Army of Two and Dragon Age.

The comics will start to roll out from January 2010 in print and digital form.

The press release is after the jump.

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Nelson’s confirmed that this week, your lot for Arcade will be South Park: Lets Go Tower Defense Play and Lucidity.

They’ll both cost 800 MS points each.

There you have it.

The rumours are true – Epic Mickey exists. Game Informer just took the wraps of it’s next issue: the game’s on the cover.

It’s also confirmed it is a Wii exclusive.

And Disney’s just sent out invites to a press event happening in London on October 28 for the “announcement of an iconic new game”, which has a massive droop of ink sliding down. More at IGN.

It’s official: we’re fucking pumped now for this. Go nuts.

Microsoft’s detailed the next batch of songs that’ll be going live for Lips this month.

Erasure, The Supremes, The Pretenders, Jason Mraz and more will be coming to the game within the next couple of weeks.

You can find out more info as to whats coming at CVG.

Rockstar’s sent out an update to the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV to add in the Achievements for the upcoming Ballad of Gay Tony DLC.

All you need to do is stick in GTA IV into the trey, boot it up, update and bam. Gamerscore for the game now bumped up to 1500 from 1250.

More info over at StickSkills.

The Ballad of Gay Tony is out on October 29 on Xbox Live and at retail with Episodes from Liberty City alongside The Lost and Damned.

Joystiq are reporting that the PlayStation Motion Controller has been codenamed “Sphere”.

It comes as Sega developer Yasuhito Baba commonly referred the controller as the “Sphere” during an interview with the site during TGS at the end of September.

Also according to the site is that it seems Sphere is a development codename as Sony reps who were approached by JS were unaware of the codename.

Either way, take with a massive pinch of salt.

Our dreams of playing as David Bowie are no longer a fantasy. They’re reality.

USA Today has the first shot of Bowie as a character in the game, also revealing that Bowie’s Let’s Dance will be in the game.

Sweetness.

More through the link.