Monthly Archives: October 2009

See that? That is the packaging for a 250Gb PS3 with Need for Speed: Shift, as picked up by FrenchGamers.

It’s grey too. Lovely grey.

While it hasn’t been formally announced, it has been rumoured before.

We’ll leave emails with Sony and EA to confirm this if possible.

Eurogamer‘s announced it’s bringing two games from Bethesda over to the Eurogamer Expo when it takes place at the end of this month.

What are those games? They happen to be Rogue Warrior and Medieval Games..

Both of those games will be on show in Leeds from October 27/28 and in London on October 30/31

Trevor Williams has said to Develop that he has left Codemasters.

The now former boss of it’s Birmingham studio has left on good terms with the developer, stating he left to persue new opportunities in the industry.

It comes nearly a year since Codies bought Swordfish Birmingham from Activision to become Codemasters Birmingham. His replacement will be by Pivotal co-founder Alex McLean.

“Since joining Codemasters in late 2008 following the acquisition of Swordfish Studios, it’s been a pleasure to have Trevor on the senior studios team and his contribution has been of great benefit to our Southam, Birmingham and Malaysian studios; we wish him the very best in his future projects,” said VP of Codemasters Gavin Cheshire.

More through the link.

SCEE has said in a statement to GI that sales of the PSPgo have performed in line with their “expectations”, with sales of up 100% for PSP hardware since the Go launched on Thursday.

“PSPgo has performed in line with our expectations, driving 100 per cent incremental volume for the category and has benefited the broad PSP portfolio with PSP-3000 also enjoying a big lift.

“PSP software sales also having been a standout with both new releases GT PSP and FIFA 10 performing well,” said SCEE in a statement.

However, Chart-Track are refusing to confirm if that is indeed correct as they have said they will not reveal any information on sales for the Go.

More through the link.

SCEE Studio London producer Nicolas Doucet has revealed in an interview with Gamekult that The Getaway 3 and Eight Days weren’t canned, but were in fact “put aside”.

The assumption was that both games were swept under the rug for EyePet and were subsequently canned. However, that now doesn’t seem to be the case.

“I would not say they were abandoned, just put aside. Much work had been done. The studio just wanted to focus on its strengths, EyeToy and SingStar. Given the potential of EyePet, priorities have been changed, but it is not a “death” of other projects. Ultimately, this decision has benefited everyone.”

Doucet also revealed that they were both in the halfway stage of development.

More through the link.

SCEA president Jack Tretton has revealed he “couldn’t be happier” with the recent sales figures the PlayStation 3 has recieved since introducing the price-cut and the PS3 Slim at GamesCom over a month ago.

“Skyrocketing sales, couldn’t be happier with the numbers that we’re seeing, and I think proof that there was tremendous consumer demand, they were just waiting for the price-point to come down.”

Tretton also talks about Micrsoft and Nintendo in the interview. On Microsoft?

“I love their money. I think they can afford to be more patient, we’re very profit driven, we’re interested in return on investment in a fairly short period of time. I think Microsoft is prepared to go at it from a very steep curve in terms of profitability.”

And on Nintendo:

“Nintendo is almost the polar opposite. They know what they do well and they stick to it. They deliver a casual, youth-oriented entertainment experience that’s very enjoyable after 20 years. And they make money, they print money. Their profitability is their key focus and features are nice but profitability is king and I think that is enviable.”

Find more of the interview over at Forbes.

From PS3Center.

SCEE has told VG247 that it is aiming for a “similar time frame” between the EU-US release of LittleBigPlanet PSP.

“We don’t have a date for the UK but are targeting a similar time frame,” said a rep from SCEE

It comes as the US release was confirmed for a November 17 release this morning. But for the UK lot, the wait for a date continues.

Microsoft’s Deal of the Week this week is going to be Prince of Persia Epilogue.

Once 800 MS points, it’ll be 560 MS points for this week only.

Remember – Gold members only.

Thanks, D’Toid.

According to a report from Electronic Theatre, the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 has recieved a small delay.

Intended for release along with it’s console brethren worldwide on November 10, as well as the Nintendo Wii version of Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare: Mobilzed for the DS, the PC SKU will now apparently launch on November 24.

Both PS3 and 360 SKU’s are uneffected, and will still launch on November 10.

We’ll follow up with Activision on this one and see if this is true.

Speaking in an interview with Meristation (via GameZine), Polyphony Digital boss Kazunori Yamauchi has said that the pressure to release Gran Turismo 5 is “difficult to bear”.

“Not in terms of content, but the pressure really, if we can call it that, of the delivery dates are sometimes difficult to bear,” said Yamauchi.

But he does insist that PD will get through it because they are one big happy family.

“The most important people in my life and close work are of course employees Polyphony. We are like a family.

“On the other hand, some people at Sony helped me and help them grow professionally. And those people I work and my devotion I’m happy to help all I can.”

The game was widely speculated for a Q4 release this year. But it was announced at TGS that it wouldn’t be released until March 2010 in Japan at least.

Microsoft’s announced that it’s bringing Call of Duty 3 and Tom Clancy”s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 to Games on Demand for Live Marketplace as of tomorrow.

Both games will be £19.99 when they’re released.

Thanks, CVG.

Hideo Kojima pumps iron!

Bet you never thought you’d see that sentence in your lifetime.

The picture comes from a blog Kojima did during TGS on the Japanese Kojima Productions website.

All of this is due to a slow news day. But admit it, you’re still impressed at him.

Thanks, Andriasang.

Relentless has just put out the first screens of it’s new PSN game Blue Toad Murder Files.

There are ten shots in total of the episodic game, which is due for a release on December 17.

Find them over at The Lost Gamer.

Nintendo’s released a brand new video for Wii Fit Plus.

Catch it after the jump, courtesy of Default Prime.

It’s out tomorrow in the US. It’s out here in the UK at the end of the month.

More »

FIFA 10 has unsurprisingly entered the UK charts at No. 1, taking out Halo 3: ODST which lands at number three. The top three is topped off with Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box at number two.

The launch of the most recent FIFA is now also the second biggest launch in the UK, only behind Grand Theft Auto IV in April 2008. It’s also the most successful launch of a FIFA ever.

Catch the full charts below. Last week’s data is here.

Activision UK managing director Andrew Brown has defended the publisher’s position on giving a £55 RRP to Modern Warfare 2.

When the price was announced, a lot of people weren’t happy chappys and even threatened to boycott the game. But Brown insists it is a tag that is justified.

“At the end of the day, there is a spectrum of what people can afford and what people are prepared to spend. These things are key,” said Brown.

“This is an industry where things cost a lot to develop and it’s a risky business. We talk about building franchises; it is very expensive to do this from every respect. What we are finding is that for the right products, if you look at the time someone will spend playing something and compare it to something else, people are saying it’s worth it.”

More at MCV.

Eurogamer‘s put live a brand new Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time trailer.

It tells you “how to spot a super villain”, apparently.

Go give it a watch through the link. Out in the US on October 27, but no EU date yet.

Alan Wake could have been released “much earlier”.

That is what Remedy’s Matias Mylllyrinne said in a recent episode of EGTV, showcasing the game. Mylllyrinne also confirmed the game has been in development since 2005.

“It’s been since 2005 so it’s – we’ve be crafting this thing and for us I mean we could’ve put something out much earlier to be honest, and it would’ve been probably okay.

“But for us, we only want to come out with a game when we have something to say and a point to make so when gamers put down their hard earned cash on a game the Remedy brand on that box needs to be a seal of quality so they’re getting a certain movie like experience with good story and a good character.

That really is key for us.”

Game is out in spring 2010 for Xbox 360.

MW2Blog.com has managed to obtain what looks like two lists which feature the names of the maps for the Spec Ops mode of Modern Warfare 2, as well as the game’s multiplayer.

Some maps for Spec Ops include Hidden, The Pit and Terminal, while some of the multiplayer maps include Afghan, Derail and Invasion.

Find more through the links.

You may have seen one of the maps called “The Pit” here. IW really should say MW2 is a Fallout 3 prequel now after this morning’s epic new trailer – get it here.

CCP revealed over the weekend at it’s Fanfest event in Reykjavik that it’s upcoming console MMO shooter Dust 514 won’t be requiring subscriptions in order to play the game.

However, the game will instead use micro-transactions via a virtual items marketplace.

From Eurogamer.

Some new shots and impressions of the game went live this morning. Get them through here.