Monthly Archives: November 2009

Konami bosses decided to initially announce Castlevania: Lords of Shadow as “Lords of Shadow” as they were nervous at the reaction to such a diversion from the IP’s standard formula, Konami Euro dev boss Dave Cox has told GameReactor.

“It was quite a radical departure from what had gone before with Castlevania, and there was a little bit of nervousness that perhaps it wouldn’t be accepted as a Castlevania game,” Cox said of the title’s Games Convention reveal in 2008.

He added: “As this was quite a big departure from what people knew about Caastlevania, senior management took the decision that we were going to announce it as Lords of Shadow, see what the reaction is, and if it’s a good one then this would become a fully-fledged Castlevania.”

The fact Konami was pimping weirdy fighter Castlevania Judgment at the time didn’t help, either.

“Not only that, but as you probably remember, we were showing Castlevania Judgment at the time, and it was felt that we didn’t want to take the focus away from that particular game,” Cox said.

Cox went on to say that Lords of Shadow had been pitched and green-lit as a Castlevania game.

The title was confirmed at E3 this year to be a pet Kojima project. Patrick Stewart’s involved in VO, and trailers have shown stunning form.

It’s out next year for PS3 and 360.

Capcom’s release a new Okamiden trailer, as you can see after the break.

It involves the small white dog you’ve seen before, and someone trying to hit it with what looks to be a large piece of paper.

Thanksgiving, eh? More on Destructoid.

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Future’s year ending September 2009 has seen a 61 percent drop in profit, down from £9.5 million to £3.7 million.

Revenue was down 13 percent to £153.1 million. It’s America’s fault, apparently.

“The year was a tale of two markets. Our larger UK business out-performed the market, increasing profits despite a relatively modest revenue decline. Our US business experienced a very difficult year – hit by a general advertising market in freefall and unprecedented disruption at newsstand,” said CEO Stevie Spring.

UK revenues were down 8 percent to £106.5 million, compared to a 22 percent US drop to £47 million.

More on GI.

The GamePro website‘s confirmed that the next Puzzle Quest game will be included in its next issue.

There’s a single screenshot there. Welcome to the big biscuit Thanksgiving news.

Via Joystiq.

Undead Labs founder, Jeff Strain, has revealed that Microsoft and Sony like the idea of console-based subscription MMOs despite the obstacles.

“There are still hurdles to jump with both Sony and Microsoft,” he told Develop. “But people will make it much easier to jump the hurdle if people can come to the table and say ‘we’re making a console-only MMO from the ground-up.

“I’ve been talking to them for years and I think they very much want to see this. There are lots of sticking points to get through. The questions will be how billing works, how the revenue is recognized and who gets what,” adding that console makers are currently “feeling their way through the whole MMO business model”.

Undead Labs is currently working on an unnamed console-based MMO with zombies.

Via CVG.

Europe’s PSN update this week has some Fallout 3 for you, along with the new Borderlands DLC, and some Star Wars Battlefront.

Here’s the main bit, with themes, minis, free videos and the usual Rock Band and Guitar Hero offerings posted through the EU PS Blog:

PS3

• Madden NFL Arcade (£9.99/€12.99)

PSone

• Lilo and Stitch: Trouble in Paradise (£3.99/€4.99)

Demos

• Comet Crash
• Mushroom Wars

Add-Ons

• Fallout 3

Broken Steel (€7.99)

Operation Anchorage (€7.99)

The Pitt (€7.99)

Point Lookout (€7.99)

Mothership Zeta (€7.99)

• Borderlands – The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned (£6.29/€7.99)
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 – Character and Mission Pack (£7.99/€9.99)
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 – Costume Pack (£3.19/€3.99)
• Dragon Ball Raging Blast – Warriors on Earth Pack (free)
• EyePet – Lucky Dip Styling Pack 6 (free)
• LittleBigPlanet – Limited Edition LBP for PSP T-Shirt (£3.99/€4.99)

PSP

• Breath of Fire 3 (£13.99/€17.99)
• Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (£15.99/€19.99)
• Obscure the Aftermath (£23.99/€29.99)
• Power Stone Collection (£13.99/€17.99)
• Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (£15.99/€19.99)
• Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes (£31.99/€39.99)

DICE’s Gordon van Dyke has assured gamers over on the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 forums that the PC Beta has not been canceled, just delayed until early 2010 for more planning.

“I’ll get right to it and say the BFBC2 PC Beta is not canceled,” he wrote. “Now this all started due to changes made to an earlier blog that removed the PC Beta from the details and the reason for this was the plan changed.

“With the huge success of the PS3 Beta we decided to drastically increase the PC Beta’s capacity to insure as many people as possible could participate. Unfortunately this meant we had to delay the Beta to very early next year giving us more planning time to make it happen and implement more optimizations.”

He went on to confirm details for the PC version, which include: DX9 -11 support, up to 32 Players on PC (24 on consoles), it runs on Windows XP, Vista, and 7, peripheral support like Joysticks for flying, NVIDIA 3D Vision, Logitech LCD Keyboards and VoIP Support, a dedicated ranked server and loads more.

Hit the link to get the full thing.

Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada has said that the games industry must be prepared for the eventual switch to digital distribution and streaming services as consoles games “won’t exist” someday.

“In ten years’ time a lot of what we call ‘console games’ won’t exist,” he told MCV. “Somewhere around 2005 the console manufacturers’ strategy shifted. In the past the platform was hardware, but it has switched to the network. A time will come when the hardware isn’t even needed anymore.

“With that, any kind of terminal becomes a potential platform on which games can be played – that’s exponential growth in the potential of gaming. The potential size of the market is enormous.”

Wada said that Square’s preparing by producing more social and browser games along with monitoring 2010’s Beta of Final Fantasy XIV on PS3, and that in order to survive the switch, third-parties must follow suit or else “suffer a big negative impact”.

“Social and browser games are going to grow dramatically – especially in areas like Asia which does not have as big a console market,” he said.

More through the link.

F1 2009 producer, James Wakelam, has said that online multiplayer is “abosolutely why” people purchase 360 and PS3 over other consoles, and why Codemasters decided not to include online multiplayer in F1 2009 on Wii.

“We decided not to introduce any online components for these two platforms. We wanted to focus on what we thought were the main reasons people bought these consoles,” Wakelam told Square-Go. “Had we been working on PS3 or Xbox, these online multiplayer would have been a given because that is absolutely why people buy those consoles.

On PSP we were mindful that when playing a handheld is not the same as playing in your living room…multiplayer is present in the form of local Wi-fi. You can play an entire season in two-player or quick races in four-player.

It’s not that these consoles are not capable of providing a good online multiplayer experience, but we asked ourselves ‘Are people that buy a Wii interested in playing online’. Some certainly are, but for the most part they are looking for a social experience that can involve all of the family.

“So we opted for split screen multiplayer in Wii and worked hard to make sure we cater for all skill levels.”

Via Gamerzines.

Valve’s Jason Holtman has told GI.biz that rival digital download sites like Direct2Drive, Impulse and Gamersgate that refuse to sell Modern Warfare 2 over the inclusion of Steamworks are missing out on business.

“To our minds, we think that if you’re making a good game and it’s got the services a customer wants it should get out in as many channels as possible. If you have a good portal and you’re good at collecting money from folks, and attracting them, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be,” said the business development director.

“We try to make those services that developers and our customers want. Whether another distributor wants to carry them or not, we don’t have any say in the matter, that’s between Activision and other online distributors.”

Direct2Drive accused Steamworks of “forcing the user to install a Trojan Horse” earlier in the month, and while Holtman didn’t “comment on the comment” he did say that a lot more games featuring the tool are set for release.

“The interesting thing is, those games that have Steamworks features in them are really made to be the things customers want. Developers are choosing the features that make the game better. There’s no service where there are features you have to have, developers are choosing between those, he said.

“There’s a lot of games that came out in 2009 with Steamworks, and they’ll be a lot more games in 2010 that have Steamworks.”

Grab the link for the rest.

Superannuation‘s posted a couple of videos of Sony’s E3 efforts in 2003 and 2004, and if you ever wanted to see a clear indication of just what “console war” meant at E3′s peak, look no further. Get them after the break.

For the record, 2003 was the year Sony announced PSP. The scale of what’s happening there is just insane. And shameful. And amazing. See for yourself.

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Update – It’s gone. Hope you enjoyed it!

PlayStationPure’s carrying the Red Dead Redemption trailer titled, “I am John Martson”. Watch it right now.

This looks absolutely fucking brilliant. It’s Eastwood’s spaghetti westerns in a game. The date’s confirmed at the end for April 27.

Go go go. This wasn’t supposed to be released until next week, so don’t be amazed if it gets yanked.

Thanks, No_PUDding.

Ve3tro‘s noticed that the Splinter Cell site‘s now covered with a Russian message and tomorrow’s date.

Apparently, it says this:

“Periodically security system will be disconnected for conducting of planned works and data protection. During similar works can arise the breach out of danger from the external threat. Thus, all turning offs will bear random nature in accordance with the random diagram Delta-3-6- Oscar”

Awesome. Also, there are some GPS co-ordinates in the bottom right corner. We’re going to trust Ve3tro here. Apparently they point to Saint Petersburg.

There’s more! Look at this.

Reckon it’s got something to do with Splinter Cell and Russia? Should know tomorrow.

This is a bit silly. Steam’s offering 18 THQ games for a highly affordable £26/$50.

It’s got everything you could possibly want from THQ. All of it. All the Company of Heroes, Red Faction, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Saints Row and Dawn of War you could ever need.

Buy. It. Thanks, RPS.

Hit the link for almost 12 minutes of video from the first level of PixelJunk Shooter, the latest in the Q Games series.

On first impressions it appears to be properly excellent, blending puzzles and shooting in something instantly accessible and fun. Good deal.

Ignore the fact that someone appears to be playing it like a simpleton for the first few minutes, obviously.

It’s out on December 10.

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Valve’s upgraded it’s Left 4 Dead 2 360 servers, claiming console play will now be “lag-free”.

“We have upgraded our network infrastructure to better accommodate the huge response to L4D2,” said the firm on the game’s blog.

“360 players will now have lag-free servers. We’ve also added more dedicated servers.”

Woot, etc. Cheers, EG.

Hit the link for a long Super Street Fighter IV trailer showing off Cody, Guy, Adon, T. Hawk and others all doing the business. It’s impressive stuff, to be honest.

Cody, Guy and Adon were only confirmed for the game in Famitsu earlier this week: the video shows off their Ultras.

Thanks, bobbymington. It’s out early next year.

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GI’s reporting that Championship Manager developer Beautiful Game Studios is to lose around 80 percent of its staff.

“Posts will either be cut or relocated to China in a cost-cutting exercise, while Roy Meredith will continue to lead the studio, and the ChampMan brand will remain headquartered in London,” says the report.

The studio was bought up by Square Enix along with the rest of Eidos earlier this year.

More through there.

Q just stuck up a demo of PixelJunk Monster Deluxe for PSP – get it here.

It looks as though it’s the beach bit from the game’s island on offer. Hit the link and get to it.

Modern Warfare 2′s first content update will release in the “wonderfully vague” timeframe of “spring,” Infinity Ward’s Rob Bowling’s tweeted.

There’s no detail on what it’s going to contain but some maps and new modes is probably a safe bet. Anyone fancy a bit of global thermonuclear war?

Thanks, JPS.