Monthly Archives: July 2011

Lucasarts has responded to the closure of Star Wars: Galaxies, stating both it and SOE “investigated every option to keep the game open,” before deciding to shutter it completely.

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“Below-average games are not being reviewed as often as they once were and, partly as a result, critics have not honed their skills at assigning scores from the lower end of their grading scales. The question of exactly how bad a game has to be to merit a 1 score instead of 2 on the 10 point scale, for example, is not being contemplated with as much experience, care and precision as the 8 versus 9 consideration.

“Even though enduring a 10-15 hour game that has been thrown together must be an excruciating experience for the game critic, picking that game apart in a review with the degree of care and precision that he or she would employ when reviewing a brilliant AAA game would absolutely help to better define a publication’s full scoring scale, making every subsequent score more meaningful.” – Metacritic founder Marc Doyle to GamePro.

Variety is reporting that Netflix is planning to expand its streaming service into the UK and Spain during Q1 2012. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said back in the spring the firm had plans for a “third wave of international expansion” during early 2012. If the report is accurate, it’s a possibility the service will finally be made available on consoles in both countries.  Thanks, VentureBeat.

Market research group Gartner Inc., has estimated software spending in 2011 hit around $44.7 billion despite June’s 10 percent drop in spending reported by NPD.

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“This idea of ​​an open world in 3D is very good, and I would love to do something like Snatcher, but I do not have the time or the means to do so. But if anyone else would like to develop it, I would love it.” – Hideo Kojima to the PS Blog regarding a sequel to cyberpunk-themed adventure Snatcher. [pic]

Team Meat’s Edmund McMillen has announced The Binding Of Isaac for release on Steam this August.

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Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling has said the team’s “learning new ways to tell stories and learning new ways to deliver experiences,” and feels these lessons have paid-off with Modern Warfare 3.

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Valve has announced a new content delivery system for Steam, which it said is designed to deliver better, global download rates and streamline the publishing process.

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Arkane Studios has posted an interactive map over on Game Informer featuring the world of Dishonored.

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Saber Interactive aims to make telling left from right, and up from down exceedingly difficult with its gravity-defying shooter. Read onward to see if Stace Harman experienced vertigo, or not.

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Uncharted 3′s multiplayer beta ended in the wee-hours this morning, and Naughty Dog said it garnered over 1.53 million unique players during its run, making it PS3′s largest online beta ever.

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Here’s a third batch of shorts for your Friday, because third time’s a charm – apparently.

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“It’s been a struggle to nail down and maintain an identity that stays true to Ghost Recon’s roots while allowing the franchise to grow and be competitive in the genre. It was always going to be a challenge. It’s the drill when you’re working on a franchise with a quality track record and you want to innovate and offer a different game experience. It takes time and trials to get it right.” – Ghost Recon: Future Soldier’s multiplayer creative director Tommy Jacob to CVG. [pic]

BioWare has said it will be making announcements regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic during Comic-Con next week during its panel on the game. New gameplay footage of the game will also be shown, and as previously announced, there will be a playable build of the game on hand inside the Star Wars Pavilion, booth #2913. Hopefully, once of these “announcements” will be an exact release date, but we won’t hold our breath.

The comics blog The Quarter Bin has posted a rumor that during Comic-Con next week, Capcom will announce Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Granted, Ryota Niitsuma will be announcing news at a Marvel vs. Capcom 3 panel and Marvel Interactive will also be holding a panel discussing “some exciting new details about the future of Marvel vs. Capcom 3.” The site also states Capcom will launch Ultimate MvC3 at a discounted price of $39.99 which will include 12 extra characters. Maybe it is DLC. Maybe it is indeed an “ultimate” title. We’ll see next week, we suppose. Thanks, Joystiq.

Hideo Kojima described to the PS Blog some of the changes his team made to Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker so the PSP title would work on PS3.

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Miki Takahashi, White Knight Chronicles II’s assistant producer at D3 Publisher, has posted an update regarding the game over on the PS Blog.

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Epic Games’ European boss Mike Gamble believes some publishers make “stupid acquisitions” thus causing studio closures like Black Rock by Disney as one such example.

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Ubisoft has sent over an updated release schedule for the UK, and we’ve posted the relevant dates for you below.

Looks like Call of Juarez: The Cartel on PC has been pushed into September, and will release the week before Child of Eden hits PS3.

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Relic’s set to help out Vigil with Warhammer 40k: Dark Millennium Online once work on Space Marine is finished, according to marketing manager James McDermott.

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