Monthly Archives: November 2009

During today’s Q2 EA conference call, EA Games label president Frank Gibeau confirmed the existence of a Need for Speed title developed by Burnout creator Criterion Games.

“In recent years, we failed to put adequate resources behind the franchise and, as a result, quality suffered,” he admitted.

Giving the series a good tune-up, as it turns out, is as simple as 1, 2, Here’s hoping that the new game’s a lot like Burnout 3!

“Next year’s Need for Speed has been under development now for some time at our award-winning Criterion Studio,” Gibeau said.

Here’s hoping it crashes and burns. In a good way.

Thanks, Joystiq.

During today’s EA Q2 conference call, EA Games label president Frank Gibeau confirmed that, while Activision’s Call of Duty franchise may have won a few battles here and there, it certainly hasn’t won the war of the war shooters. Medal of Honor, as it turns out, is gearing up for a comeback.

“In the months ahead, you’ll hear more about our plans to revitalize core IP, including the Medal of Honor franchise,” said Gibeau.

We first caught wind of this project when John Riccitiello mentioned it during EA’s Q1 call a few months ago.

The Medal of Honor franchise purple-hearted out of active duty after 2007′s triple-shot volley of Medal of Honor: Airborne, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, and Medal of Honor: Vanguard landed with three resounding “thuds.”

Thanks, Joystiq.

EA released its Q2 earnings report today, and – as you can probably guess – it wasn’t exactly written on gilded paper. Net losses continue to pile up, now sitting at $391 million – a fairly substantial increase over last year’s $310 million. As the stinging cross in this bank-breaking combo, sales are also down at $788 million, compared to last year’s $894 million. EA CEO John Riccitiello, however, insists that the situation is under control.

“EA is performing well, with quality, sales and segment share up so far this year,” he said. “We are making tough calls to cut cost in targeted areas and investing more in our biggest games and digital businesses.”

“Tough calls,” indeed. EA also confirmed that it’s laying-off 1500 employees as part of a “cost reduction plan.” This confirms earlier rumblings that EA was getting ready to cut a few employees loose. Well, except for the “a few” part.

Best of luck to all affected.

According to a report by Kotaku, EA has cut loose a fair bit of it’s staff today from some of it’s studios.

It comes as the publisher today bought social games firm Playfish for $300 million.

The studios affected include Tiburon and BlackBox, as well as Mythic and EA’s Redwood studio from their QA department.

We’ll leave EA an email, and see what they say.

Capcom has confirmed that it’ll be releasing the all new Resident Evil 5 content that was announced at TGS in September will come to the PSN and Xbox Live Marketplace as DLC.

After a poll run by the publisher, over 1500 people voted for DLC, compared to the 900 who voted for a physical edition of the DLC, as well as the full game. Capcom also promised more content will be coming with the DLC, but refused to disclose what that may be.

DLC will release in spring 2010.

Thanks, That Gaming Site.

Gearbox has confirmed that the first DLC for Borderlands will start dropping on November 24 for XBLMP and PSN. PC version wasn’t mentioned.

Announced earlier last month, Zombie Island of Dr. Ned will retail for $9.99 when it does go on sale in two weeks time.

Thanks, 1UP.

The London premiere for Modern Warfare 2 just wrapped up. In case you just tuned in, where the fuck were you? Don’t worry: you can catch-up here.

But if the London event didn’t satisfy your COD needs, no worries. IGN is streaming live the US launch party for the game, starting from 10pm GMT. That’s 5pm EST, and 2pm PST.

Get it through here.

Only nearly three and a half hours to go, now.

Speaking at the premiere of Modern Warfare 2, Infinity Ward’s Chance Glasgow has said they felt like they “injected steroids” into the multiplayer for the game, before adding “heroin”.

Yeah, we don’t get it neither.

Glasgow also said that Spec Ops is the “most obvious” new thing for the game, as it couldn’t “fit” into the main story of the game.

He finally said that” there was so much room left” after COD4, they couldn’t just stop and only “just make one.”

“There was so much room left after the first one for story… We couldn’t just make one.”

Chase went off for a bit, but now he is back on stage, and is about to demo the first level of the game. Follow the liveblog here.

Did all you Wii fanboys wee yourself just a little bit when you seen that Tales of Vesperia was coming to the Wii?

May want to clean yourself up there, Radiohead. It ain’t happening, says the voice actor who started the whole furlong.

Rikiya Koyama, who said it was coming to the Wii, revealed he had his wires crossed, and was actually referring to Tales of Graces, which is coming to the Wii.

Consider the matter closed.

Thanks, Siliconera.

Acti’s holding Britain’s first Leicester Square game premiere in London tonight for Modern Warfare 2, and we’re here. We’re beyond excitement. Here’s the line: we’re standing on the other side of it.

The “official briefing” takes place at 7.00pm tonight, and we’ll liveblog it for you. Why not? It lasts for an hour. Famous people are expected. There may be a gun or two. There’s even a “secret gig” supported by “top DJs” after it.

We’re now updating after the link.

More »

Infinity Ward comms boss Rob Bowling just posted the first image of the Modern Warfare 2 premiere in London. We’re on our way there now.

We’re going to be liveblogging the event itself, which starts at 7.00pm GMT and last for an hour. This is the first time a game’s been launched this way on London’s Leicester Square.

Not long now.

Gamestop’s cranked up the retardotron for the day, having decided to offer pre-orders on Diablo III despite the fact the game has no hint of a release date and absolutely no pricing information whatsoever. Yours for $60.

“Official pricing and release dates have not been announced by Blizzard,” warned the US retailer.

“Price and release date listed are estimates only and subject to change. Worry Free Guarantee – if the price decreases between the time you place your preorder and the release date, you’ll receive the lower of the two.”

Brilliant. Buy three. Thanks, Evil Avatar.

Labour MP Tom Watson has told the BBC that remarks made by anti-game stalwart Keith Vaz about Modern Warfare 2 todkay ared a bridge too far.

“Everything that comes out of Parliament in relation to video games is relentlessly negative,” he said.

“There are thousands of people employed in this industry, there are 26 million people playing games. We should have a much more balanced view of the industry, indeed we should be supporting them through difficult times.”

Vaz went on a predictable warpath in the Mail today, saying MW2′s violence left him “absolutely shocked”.

Watson’s set up a Facebook group called Gamer’s Voice, designed to bring together people sick of game-bashers in the UK. Do the honourable thing.

Thanks, GamePolitics.

Update – This date’s for the launch party only. Sorry. The date’s still under wraps – Ed.

SCEE’s just confirmed a launch date for the EU PS Store Video Delivery Service, which is November 18.

Yup. Next Wednesday.

The launch movies were confirmed only a couple of days ago.

Eurogamer.pt has live new shots of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 to look at.

It’s already been cited as a possible Modern Warfare 2 beater, and from these shots as well as recent footage, it may very well be.

The game is out on the PS3, 360 and PC on March 2 in the US and March 5 in the UK.

Update: Square Enix has just confirmed to VG247 that, indeed, there will be an announcement. Regarding advertising the announcement in the UK, the ball will start rolling within the next 24 hours.

“Yes we have an announcement on Friday for Europe also,” said a Square rep, when asked if the EU would be getting the same treatment the US is getting.

Promotion is now underway in France and Germany.

Original Story: Hot. Fucking. Dog.

CVG has said they will have an exclusive Final Fantasy XIII announcement coming this Friday at 3:30pm GMT. What is it? They didn’t say, but four words come to mind.

The. European. Release. Date.

Anyways, this could be in sync with an incoming announcement from the US, if this is any evidence.

Hawks. Watch. Like.

Thanks, Blerk.

Take with a serious pinch of salt, but according to Eurogamer.de (via TSA), Guerilla Games has confirmed Killzone 3 on a Dutch TV show.

Animation director Jan-Bart Van Beek was on the said show, and confirmed the existence of the game. He also confirmed they are planning for a 2011 release, although it could be released in 2010. There is no pressure from SCEE to deliver the game for 2010 though, apparently.

Last month, it was reported that the game was in development in the US OPM.

Again, take with a very large pinch of salt. We’ll email SCEE about this one, and see what they have to say.

Eurogamer.nl has live some new shots of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers.

You can find them over there.

No European date yet for the game.

Microsoft’s announced that Season 2 of 1 vs 100 will start from next Thursday, November 19 at 5:00pm PST.

The game will also recieve a couple of tweaks, with it being easier to become either the mob or the One by having a great score throughout the season, as well as The One doing a pose while coming down the stairs to center stage.

You can find more info over at Evil Avatar.

English Community Head for SCEE MusterBuster has confirmed that the PlayStation Network will undergo maintenance tomorrow morning.

It’ll go down at 8am GMT, and will return at 11am GMT.

Find more through here.