Category Archives: France

According to a Today’s Gamers MMO Focus Report by Gamesindustry.com and TNS, Americans spent an eye-watering £2.55 billion on MMOs last year.

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Amazon.fr’s posted a listing for a 250Gb God of War III PS3 bundle, priced at €350. The interesting bit? The retailer reckons it’s out on March 17.

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According to Nintendo, Wii has sold four million units in France since its launch back in 2006.

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The main Paris court has ruled against Nintendo in a case over the Divineo Droup creating DS flash cartridges.

According to Maxconsole, the judge suggested that Nintendo intentionally “locks out” developers from their consoles and should be “more like Windows” in allowing developers to create any application they wish for consumer use.

“[This] could have bigger implications for developers and the like because Nintendo is deemed to be ‘illegally’ protecting their system by locking users out”, wrote Maxconsole. “Therefore, developers should not actually require separate development kits and should just be able to develop applications as they wish on retail versions of Nintendo’s consoles.”

Court documents are to be posted later.

Hit the link for more.

Sony announced earlier its list of movies and studios expected for the November launch of its video service, and now it’s telling the world just how awesome it really is, what with over 2,300 movies and 14,000 TV shows.

Combined, all video content on the store amounts to around 10,000 hours of visual crack.

“PlayStation Network now boasts the most content of any downloadable video delivery service through a videogame console available today,” said a Sony representative in a statement to Edge.

Sony also let it be known that video store downloads increased over 100 percent in September 2009 when compared to the same month in 2008.

One can only expect things to get crazier once Netflix goes live on the system this month.

More through the link.

Sony has announced details of its Euro PS3 Video Service, and while pricing is still to be determined, SCEE did see fit to send over a list containing some of titles planned for day one.

Here’s some of what you can expect:

• Angels & Demons
• Bruno
• Casino Royale
• Crank 2: High Voltage
• Hannah Montana: The Movie
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
• The Hills Have Eyes
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Slated for a November launch in France, Germany, Spain and the UK, studios in on the deal include 20th Century Fox, Disney-ABC-ESPN Television1, Lionsgate2, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Starz Media2, Universal, Warner Bros and number of local studios to be announced closer to launch.

Full PR mail follows the break.

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Some new off-screen footage of the multiplayer for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has been posted on YouTube.

The footage was taken at the Micromania 09 event in Paris recently. Despite the fact it is off-screen, we have to say it looks really good.

Find the video after the jump. The game is out in March 2010 for PS3 and 360.

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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.

According to JVN.com, the PSPgo has sold over 8,000 units in it’s first three days on sale in France, with 50,000 units made available across the country to retailers.

Since the console went on sale nearly two weeks ago, sales for PSP hardware has increased in the UK by over 100 percent, although specific numbers weren’t given by Chart-Track.

Expect a small jump in PSP hardware sales in the US when the NPD’s are released on Thursday.

Catch more info, if you can read French, through the link.

Not content with UK sales going up by a 1,000% and initial Japanese harware sales at 150k, La Tribune are reporting sales of the PS3 have gone up in France by tenfold.

How many units were sold? According to the article, over 37,000 units sold of the Slim have been sold in France, with 12,000 sold during last weekend (if what we can gather from the translation is right).

The only main SCE region to not officially release figures yet are SCEA, although we have sent an email to them on the numbers for America.

More through the third link.

Right. Bear in mind this could be a complete lie. A catalogue page from French retailer Carrefour has apparently confirmed a new PS3 price of €299, effective as of September 1.

You can see all the scans on PS3Gen.fr.

The text above the machine says “nouvelle console, nouvelle prix” – “new console, new price” – but the model appears to be the current chassis.

That price equates to £258.

Remember: it could be bollocks. Sony’s GamesCom presser takes place in Cologne next Tuesday.

Thanks GAF and Blerk.

Update: SCEE just got back with, “I’m afraid I can’t make any comment on that.”

A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission has revealed that Midway’s managing director for Europe, Martin Spiess, has purchased Midway’s France and UK offices for €1/86 pence.

Midway UK and France are now owned by Spiess Media Holding UG and Midway’s European teams now have 90 days to sell the rest of the Midway stock they are holding.

Basically a management buyout, Midway Germany’s general manager Uwe Fürstenberg has purchased his end as well.

A clause in the agreement says the offices must drop the Midway name immediately.

Loads more financial and legal stuff regarding this are over on MCV.

MotorStorm Pacific Rift Game Launching functionality and loads of MotorStorm stuff is planned for the coming weeks on Home, according to Sony.

However until that happens, Home plans to pacify you with sweets via the Fat Princess event “Quest for Cake”.

Based upon the PSN title, the redecorated events space contains eight pieces of cake, locked away in cages. To unlock the cake and feed your Princess you need to search the space high and low for clues, these clues will “give you access to the finest gateaux and, eventually, her majesty’s waistline.”

Should you unlock all eight pieces of cake, you are rewarded with the Princesses throne for your PS apartment.

More over on the EU PS Blog.

Arkane Studios – best known for Dark Messiah of Might and Magic and Arx Fatalis – has confirmed it’s the latest outfit to get to work on BioShock 2.

The Lyon, France-based developer is assisting in level design. In a similar vein, the company recently assisted in creating multiplayer maps for Call of Duty: World at War.

“Under the direction and leadership of 2K Marin, Arkane is assisting in the creation of levels that embody the aesthetic and gameplay ideals that make BioShock such a unique and exciting experience,” said 2K Marin producer Alyssa Finley.

Four developers are now working on the sequel, namely 2K Marin, 2K Australia, Digital Extremes and Arkane Studios.

Microsoft just confirmed via Twitter that 1 vs 100 will launch in he UK on July 10.

French and German versions of 360′s TV-style quiz show will release on July 12.

More soon, apparently.

Update – Here we go. The UK and German sites are now live. There’s info there on the respective betas.

A story doing the rounds last week that claimed French retailers were refusing to stock PSP Go was debunked by SCEE this morning.

The original JeuxVideo piece claimed that “major retailers” had possibly forced Sony to not launch the handheld in France thanks to its lack of physical media – which means no ongoing games sales and no secondhand PSP Go games market.

“No French retailers have refused to stock the Go,” we were told by SCEE. The rep added that the story simply wasn’t true.

PSP Go launched in October, priced €249. We’re still waiting for the UK price.

Thanks for the initial tip, Peter.

The tenth annual Japan Expo is happening now through July 5 in Paris and Nintendo has a stand at the event.

Those attending will get hands-on time with Muramasa: Demon Blade, Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box, Super Mario Bros Wii, and Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

If you are in Paris, or plan on jaunting over for the weekend, head over to the Villepinte Exposition Center and check out over 100 exhibitors featuring everything from traditional Japanese fans and kimonos to the latest in Japanese cinema, manga and technology.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Microsoft has signed a deal with French TV and satellite network Canal +. The deal is similar to that signed with UK broadcaster Sky last month, meaning that French Xbox owners will also now be able to watch television through their 360′s without the need for a satellite dish or decoder.

According to MCV, “the partnership will initially focus on the on-demand services from Canal+, video-on-demand service Canalplay and specialist football channel Foot+.”

Reuters weighs in, adding that more than “3,000 films, premium dramas and soaps live and subsequently on demand, and French Ligue 1 soccer games.”

You’ll also be to use Xbox Live to reach friends via their avatars and chat during games.

It is also revealed that the deal will extend to other areas of the Canal Plus Group (Scandinavia please) and other Microsoft platforms.

Following news this morning that Sony was to release the Dutch, French, German, Spanish and Italian version of inFamous without English language support, SCEE has just told VG247 that the firm has u-turned on the decision – English is to be patched in at a later date.

“Following feedback from the community, we realise that there is a strong demand for English language on the Dutch, French, German, Spanish and Italian version of InFamous,” said the company in a statement.

“To remedy this situation, we will be providing a patch shortly, which will add English language to the game. As soon as the patch is ready, we will ensure that everyone is informed.”

The PS3 exclusive releases at the end of May.

Sucker Punch has apparently confirmed on its forum that the French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch versions of inFamous will feature no English language option.

The English version will only have Portuguese and Russian language settings.

This is unlikely to go down well, as you can see from the responses to the mod post, especially with the Dutch. English is spoken very widely in the Netherlands, a factor the drives a highly buoyant games market in the nation.

The decision to split out languages in this way was made after a Sony request, according to that note.

Asking SCEE for comment on this now. The game’s out at the end of May.

Thanks, TheDutchSlayer.