Suda51/Mikami EA Project details getting unveiled at TGS

Posted by Chris Holmes at 12:43pm on September 8th, 2010

EA Japan has announced that Suda51 and Mikami’s new game is going to be unveiled at the EA Tokyo Showcase 2010. That event is held on September 15th, one day before the Tokyo Game Show begins. EA claims that more games will get announced at the event, so we’ll keep you posted.

EA | Industry News | Japan | News | Tokyo Game Show

View Comments

Gearbox now owns the Duke Nukem brand

Posted by Chris Holmes at 8:08pm on September 6th, 2010

Gearbox Software has confirmed that they have purchased the Duke Nukem brand at their conference in PAX. Gearbox president Randy Pitchford dramatically told fans that “we brought Duke Nukem”. So just to clarify, Gearbox not only has the rights to release Duke Nukem Forever, it has the rights for all future projects thanks to a cooperative deal made with 3D Realms.

The press release hints that we may be seeing more of the Duke after Forever, by saying that: “The first product to be available under the Duke Nukem brand will be the long awaited Duke Nukem Forever”. Pitchford also announced that Alan Blum, the creator of the Duke Nukem franchise, is now working at Gearbox.

2K Games | Duke Nukem Forever | Gearbox Software | Industry News | News

View Comments

Take-Two makes Q3 profit

Posted by Chris Holmes at 5:23pm on September 3rd, 2010

Take-Two has confirmed that they made a profit in the third fiscal quarter that ended on July 31st, 2010. The company managed $354.1 million in sales, which is up from $94.9 million for the same quarter last year. Net income clocked in at $6 million, which is up from a loss of $56 million last year.

Red Dead Redemption has been credited with achieving most of these numbers. The game has now shipped 6.9 million units. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City, GTA IV, NBA 2K10 and Borderlands also managed to contribute. The company expects to be profitable for the full fiscal year with sales of $1.05 to $1.1 billion.

“Our results for the third quarter and our expectations for the remainder of fiscal 2010 reflect significant progress toward achieving our goals,” said Take-Two CEO Ben Feder. “First, we expect to be profitable in a fiscal year without a major multi-platform Grand Theft Auto release. Second, Take-Two’s broad array of hit franchises highlights our ability to deliver a diverse product line. Third, Red Dead Redemption has shown that our creative teams can produce multiple mega-hit franchises.”

Read the rest of this story »

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | Rockstar Games | Take-Two

View Comments

Sony files US PSJailbreak lawsuit

Posted by Chris Holmes at 3:23pm on September 3rd, 2010

Sony Computer Entertainment America has filed a lawsuit against an online distributor that was planning to sell the new PSJailbreak USB modchip. Sony believes that the device circumvents the PS3’s copy protection as it allows people to back up and play games copied to the system’s (and external) hard drive.

The distributor in question is Zoomba LDC, and they have been accused of copyright infringement, violations of the digital millennium copyright act and trademark infringement. Sony is beginning to clamp down on the device, having recently got a temporary injunction that stops the PSJailbreak being sold in Australia.

However, it looks like the cat is out of the bag as clones of the device have already started to crop up. Inventive folk can even make their own with a teensy board or a few other USB development boards.

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | PlayStation 3 | Sony

View Comments

PS3 3D Blu-ray update coming soon

Posted by Chris Holmes at 12:11pm on September 2nd, 2010

Sony has confirmed the firmware update that will allow the PS3 to play 3D Blu-rays will be released this October. Sony announced the date at IFA, a big old technology fair. The company also unveiled a few 3D bundles, with Alice in Wonderland and Michael Jackson’s This Is It in the mix. An exact release date for the update is yet to be confirmed, but we’ll let you know when we find out.

3D | Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | PlayStation 3 | Sony | Tech News

View Comments

Epic Games working on their first Apple title

Posted by Chris Holmes at 10:11pm on September 1st, 2010

Apple head honcho Steve Jobs has confirmed that Epic Games is working on their first game for Apple platforms. He was joined on stage at Apple’s press conference by Epic president Mike Capps today to show off “Project Sword”. It is a first-person action adventure game and will apparently offer “epic sword battles”. It will also support Game Centre.

Epic will be licensing Project’s Sword’s engine out for other iOS developers to use, so in essence what we saw was the big screen debut of Unreal Engine for the iPhone. You can play around with a demo of the castle environment featured in the Project Sword demonstration on your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad right now by downloading it here.

App Store | Apple | Epic Games | Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | iPad | iPhone | iPod Touch

View Comments

New iPod Touch revealed

Posted by Chris Holmes at 8:25pm on September 1st, 2010

Steve Jobs announced a new iPod Touch (amongst other stuff) during an Apple press event today. Jobs claimed that currently, the iPod Touch outsells both Nintendo’s and Sony’s handhelds combined. He went on to show off the new version of the devise that has the same specs as the iPhone 4, minus the phone bits and pieces. It has an A4 chip and a 3-axis gyroscope, alongside an upgraded Retina Display screen. There’s also a front-facing camera for Facetime oddness if you’re into that sort of thing. The 8GB model will cost $229/£189, the 32GB will set you back $299/£249 and the 64GB model is $399/£329. It is available to pre-order right now.

It will come with iOS 4.1, which launches for regular folk next week. iOS 4.1 features Game Centre, TV show rentals, HD video uploading via WiFi, HDR photos and it fixes a few bugs with proximity sensing, Bluetooth. It also fixes the mess created by iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G.

Apple | Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | iPod Touch

View Comments

Atlus dissolved by parent company

Posted by Chris Holmes at 2:52pm on August 31st, 2010

Atlus has been dissolved by parent company Index Holdings, according to a press release issued by the company today. Atlus are the folks that created the Shin Megami Tensai series and published a few Japanese RPGs in North America, including Demon’s Souls. Apparently, Index Holdings dissolved them to refocus on “profitable core areas”. It looks like the Atlus brand will continue on in some form or another, but there aren’t any more details on that yet.

Atlus | Gaming Culture | Industry News | News

View Comments

Ubisoft lays off Red Storm Entertainment staff

Posted by Chris Holmes at 1:00pm on August 27th, 2010

Ubisoft has announced that they have laid off 38 members of staff from Red Storm Entertainment. Red Storm was founded by Tom Clancy and Navy veteran Doug Littlejohns. The studio has produced quite a few titles, including Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 and America’s Army: True Soldiers. Currently, Red Storm is working on the multiplayer component of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier.

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | Ubisoft

View Comments

UK’s first videogame channel coming November

Posted by Chris Holmes at 1:00pm on August 26th, 2010

The UK will be getting its first videogame TV channel this November. It’s called Ginx and will be available on cable and satellite services. “For us it’s about light gamers,” said CEO Michiel Bakker at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. Ginx will start out with game reviews, but will eventually feature more shows that will go into other subjects. The channel will apparently explore HD and 3D in the future. Ginx already produces GameFace for Bravo, which launched during August 2009.

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | UK

View Comments

This Is Vegas cancelled

Posted by Chris Holmes at 6:06pm on August 25th, 2010

Warner Bros. has canned This Is Vegas, even though the game was less than a year from completion. The title formerly belonged to Midway, but they sold it after spending more than $43 million on the game. Some retailers pulled listings for the game last August, but Warner Bros. said the project was still alive at the time. Surreal Software, the game’s developer, was closed down earlier this year. The game was in development for the PC, PS3 and 360 before it was finally put to rest.

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | PC | PlayStation 3 | Warner Bros | Xbox 360

View Comments

Realtime Worlds unveil APB stats

Posted by Chris Holmes at 1:07pm on August 24th, 2010

Troubled developer Realtime Worlds has lifted the lid on some APB stats as administrators try to entice a buyer for the studio. The stats confirm that APB has 130,000 registered players, and the average player plays for four hours a day. Paying gamers average $28 per month on game time and user to user marketplace trading.

“These are healthy numbers and reflect positively on APB as an ongoing concern,” Administrator Paul Dounis said. “They prove this is a very sticky and enjoyable game, which is shown by the average player daily playtime and an ARPPU (Average Revenue per Paying User) that is highest of any game out there.”

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | PC | Realtime Worlds

View Comments

Modern Warfare 2 becomes the UK’s best-selling game ever

Posted by Chris Holmes at 5:47pm on August 23rd, 2010

Stats from Gfk ChartTrack have unveiled that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the best-selling game of all time in the UK. It has finally overtaken Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training after 41 weeks of being on sale. Modern Warfare 2 has spent three weeks outside the top 10. Dr Kawashima took about 36 months to overtake Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the previous record holder.

Activision | Gaming Culture | Industry News | Infinity Ward | News

View Comments

Realtime Worlds keeping 23 members of staff for MyWorld

Posted by Chris Holmes at 4:44pm on August 20th, 2010

The administrators dealing with the collapse of Realtime Worlds have officially confirmed that they will be keeping 23 out of 60 members of staff working on Project MyWorld. The remaining staff members will be continuing their work at the company’s Dundee-based headquarters. MyWorld is a platform that allows game developers to create new social games.

Joint administrator Ken Pattullo, of business rescue and restructuring specialist Begbies Traynor said: “As a smaller entity MyWorld is attracting considerable interest from potential buyers and 23 members of the team who had been working on the project clearly add value to it as a standalone business, hence the fact we have been able to offer a limited number of those jobs back.”

Here’s a video of Project MyWorld that the company released last month:

Industry News | News | Realtime Worlds | Social Gaming

View Comments

Tesco joins the used games market

Posted by Chris Holmes at 3:52pm on August 20th, 2010

Tesco has started to buy used games from people across the UK. The supermarket chain is offering credit for your games that can be used to buy anything else in store. Current adverts doing the rounds indicate the company will pay £19 for Red Dead Redemption on the 360, £19 for Mario Kart Wii and £12 for 2010 FIFA World Cup on the PS3. Obviously, those are just examples of what to expect in return for your games. Tesco will then re-sell the games across their stores nationwide. Currently, about 60 Tesco stores now accept pre-owned games.

Gaming Culture | Industry News | News | Pre-Owned Games

View Comments