Category Archives: Belgium

Thieves made off with a truck transporting the entire launch shipment of Assassin’s Creed 3 on PC for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, according to a Dutch report.

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Following a spate of office closures, newcomer Five Star Games will handle the future distribution of Sega titles in Benelux and Australia.

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According to a Microsoft fact sheet, ten more countries will be getting the Xbox Live Video Marketplace this fall.

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According to a Today’s Gamers’ survey of 13,000 people from Holland, France, Germany, Britain, Belgium and the US, more Americans play games as a percentage than all the rest.

Of those questioned, 87 percent of American males said they play games, versus 74 percent in the UK, 67 percent in Germany, and 66 percent in France.

Hit Joystiq for a précis.

Microsoft’s confirmed to VG247 that Inside Xbox went live in eight extra European countries yesterday.

The online 360 magazine is now available in Denmark, Finland, Holland, Norway and Sweden, and in multiple languages in Austria, Belgium and Switzerland.

Up to yesterday, the service was viewable in America, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Taiwan.

To take a look, just boot up your 360 and navigate to the Inside Xbox channel.

The Belgian Entertainment Association has clarified reports that game rentals are to be banned in Belgium next month, saying that the issue isn’t with retailers offering games to rent, rather than with retailers buying games for sale then renting them out.

“What’s happening is that video rental stores are declining in popularity, and because of this those stores began to buy retail copies of games and put them up for rent. I can’t think of any country that would allow this. Rental outlets need publisher permission to rent out games, and need to buy them wholesale, just like with films,” Olivier Maeterlinck, Managing Director of the Belgian Entertainment Association, told Edge.

“The point is that stores can still put out rental copies. They just have to get permission to do so. In most countries a rental point must get permission for renting out. We are no longer any different to this system, but that doesn’t mean we are ‘banning’ game rentals.”

Phew. Glad that’s cleared up.

According to this De Standaard piece, games rentals will be banned in Belgium as of December 1.

Gamemania – the largest specialist game retailer in Belgium – says in the piece that rentals make up 10 percent of its revenue.

Apparently the practice has always been illegal in the country, but has been tolerated until now.

No longer. Thanks, NeoGAF.

According to this Perfect-Rare story – translated from the Dutch by Gamer.tm – the Dutch (and Belgian) versions of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise are to cost more than elsewhere as they’ve been fully localised.

The rest of Europe ill pay €39 for the games, while if you want to play in Dutch it’ll cost you €59.

“We decided to fully translate both titles, which drove up costs,” a spokesperson said.

“If you look at the Dutch speaking market, then it’s hard to spread the costs across a limited number of consumers.

“A French or a German version, for instance, would be subject to the same costs, but the costs would fall due to there being a larger number of users.”

Don’t moan. If you want to play it in English, buy it in English. At least you have the option of buying it in Dutch. If you go and buy the Dutch version, maybe more companies will translate games into Dutch instead of just assuming you can speak English so you don’t want to play in your local language, right? Alstublieft? Dank u wel.