Category Archives: Italy

Spanish website Revogamers is reporting that THQ will cease distribution of its titles in Spain and Italy. German firm, Koch Media, is taking over distribution duties of THQ-published titles in the regions from this summer, including responsibility of the publisher’s back-catalogue and future games, which includes Darksiders II in August and Metro: Last Light early next year.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

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GameStop-family retailers across Australia, New Zealand and several European nations will begin selling PlayStation Network games and DLC in-store.

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Blizzard has announced it’s developing a fully localized Italian version of World of Warcraft.

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The ESA has named Brazil, China, France, Italy and Spain as the five countries with “extraordinarily high” levels of online game piracy.

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Koch just confirmed a February 5 street date for S.T.A.L.K.E.R : Call of Pripyat in the UK, Nordic and Italy.

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SCEE launched German and Italian versions of the official PS Blog – read all about it here.

“Pretty much everything that we post on the English Blog that is relevant to a European audience will be localised and available in your language on the new Italian and German Blogs,” said SCEE portal manager Emmanuel Orssaud.

“On the top of this content, you will find all the news and events happening around you in your country.”

More languages are to follow, obviously.

The Xbox 360 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter that’s currently being tested by the FCC has been spotted on a promotional flier inside the Italian version of the Gears of War 2 Game of the Year edition.

What a mouthful.

Anyway, the Italian gaming site Mondobox got a hold of the flier and has posted it to its website.

If true, it looks as though the original adapter will be sold alongside of the new one, once its released.

We’ll contact Microsoft and see if anyone bites.

Thanks, Joystiq.

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.

Capcom and Xbox 360 are on a quest to find the Street Fighter IV champions in  France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.  When found, the champ will be crowed the European Street Fighter Supreme Master.

Not only will the winner be bestowed with such a long, illustrious title, they will win some prizes too.

To enter the tournament, sign up here or via Xbox Live between now and May 17. Capcom will then track your progress in the automatic Championship Mode leader boards, and all you need to do is win as many matches as possible and build up your score of Grade Points.

The top 30 Grade Points scoring players will be invited to a live final in their respective country on the weekend of May 30.

National champions will be sent on to a secret European location for the Euro final, June 13-14.

Press release is below and more details are through the link.
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SCEE’s confirmed that the EU PS Blog will launch this summer, after announcing yesterday that Three Speech is to close later this month.

“The blog will be launched in English first, with French, Italian, German and Spanish versions to follow soon after,” said a rep.

“There will be a period between the closure of ThreeSpeech and the launch of the EU blog. During this time please check PlayStation.com and the official forums for news and updates on all that is going on in the world of PlayStation.

“We’ll keep you posted with more information about the blog as soon as we have it.”

Sooner the better.

Yet another big week for PlayStation hardware in Japan, although the joint PSP-PS3 fgiure isn’t as impressive as last week.

Wii’s up a bit, though. And 360′s down a lot. Keep the edge of your seat warm for next week’s data.

• PSP – 43,463
• PS3 – 28,014
• DSi – 27,564
• Wii – 17,941
• DS Lite – 11,571
• Xbox 360 – 8,378
• PS2 – 4,844

One for the vault. According to this Ananova piece, Italian medics have diagnosed a 13-year-old boy with “PlayStation addiction” after his “desperate” father rushed him to hospital.

From the story:

At first doctors at southern Italy’s Lecce hospital thought Lorenzo Amato was suffering from a stroke or a severe brain disorder.

The teenager couldn’t speak and didn’t seem to understand anything going on around him. Then doctors discovered he’d just finished a marathon session on his new PlayStation.

Local politician Antonio Buccoliero, who spoke to the doctors, said: “They eventually managed to take care of him once they understood that this was a strange kind of mental detachment connected to his PlayStation.”

The boy is now cured of his ailment, apparently, and has ordered his father to throw the console away as the thought of it makes him want to vomit.

The goal is open.

Eurogamer’s confirmed the launch of Eurogamer.it.

The site means Eurogamer Network now has publications in all major European languages.

Luca De Dominicis is the site’s managing director, whilst Alberto Belli, previously of Xbox Magazine, OPM, EDGE Italy and Leader/Black Bean Games, joins as publishing director.

“Our local sites are quickly gaining readers and advertisers across Europe and we expect our Italian venture to follow suit,” said Rupert Loman, managing director of Eurogamer.

“We’ve taken our time to find our partners in each country, but we’re delighted with the choices we have made and we look forward to working with Luca and Alberto.”

Press release after the link.

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According to this MCV piece, a GameVision report has shown that Britain has the oldest gamers in Europe, on average.

The research showed that 29 percent of male active gamers, and 30 percent of female active gamers are said to be 35 years old or over in the UK, compared with 24 percent and 25 percent in Spain and Italy.

No mention’s made there of France and Germany. Which does, like, leave something of a hole in the whole “Europe” thing, to be honest.

“Generally any chat about the average gamer is a bit nuts – it’s a mass market pursuit now with the associated niches and segments – you can’t sell anything to gamers en-masse, you have to pitch it at the appropriate niche,” explained GameVision’s Sean Droomgoole.

More through the link.