by Alexander Sliwinski May 16th 2008 5:30PM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Rhythm, Business
The website which reported that three
Rock Band tracks would be packaged with the
South Park: Season 11 DVDs has now taken that bit of info back.
TVShowsonDVD.com says that a Paramount representative informed them the information was incorrect, but that there will be other bonus materials in the release.
South Park's eleventh season had the infamous
"Guitar Queer-o" episode.
Considering
South Park had an entire episode about
Guitar Hero, it would have been a little weird if the DVDs came with
Rock Band downloads. However things got mixed up, it's a little sad to see the info turn out false -- unless the "bonus materials" end up being
Guitar Hero III tracks.
[Via
X3F]
by Alexander Sliwinski May 16th 2008 4:53PM
Filed under: Business
Joystiq has just confirmed with the Entertainment Software Association that LucasArts is no longer a member of the organization, but will still feature at E3. "Today, we can confirm that one of our members, LucasArts, has decided not to renew its membership. We value each member of our association, but respect the unique factors that led to LucasArts' decision," ESA Senior VP of Communications Rich Taylor said in a statement (copied in full after the break).
Recently,
Activision and Vivendi also left the ESA.
We're currently seeking a statement from LucasArts and will update. Update: LucasArts has sent us a statement as well (full text after the break) confirming it is no longer with the ESA, but supports the organization's mission in the industry. LucasArts also confirms it will still attend E3.
Continue reading Breaking: LucasArts leaves the ESA [update]
by Alexander Sliwinski May 16th 2008 4:00PM
Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360
It's a good thing that Microsoft got its gloating in about selling
10 million units in the US, because the Wii will not only hit that number, but probably surpass it this month. Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel
did the math and found that the Wii currently sits at about 9.5 million units in the US. If Nintendo's console sells another 700k units (
like it has been) this month and the
Xbox 360 sticks to its 200k level, the Wii will blow right past its competition's US install base.
It'll also be interesting to see the impact
Wii Fit has on the numbers when it launches
next week. Microsoft can take solace in knowing that it can always fall back on saying the Xbox 360 still has the "largest global install base of any current gen,
high definition gaming console" ... right?
by Alexander Sliwinski May 16th 2008 12:15PM
Filed under: Business
There are a little over 12 hours to go before EA's $25.74 per share
deadline for Take-Two ends at 11:59PM EDT. Analyst Michael Pachter told
Forbes (via
GamePolitics) that EA started off too high with its
$26 a share offering and should have started around $22 back then. Meanwhile, analyst Colin Sebastian tells the
San Francisco Chronicle he believes the deal is going to get "hammered out," possibly at a higher price.
As of this writing, Take-Two's stock is trading around
$27 per share, but EA could be buying up all those shares with its
billion dollar loan for all we know. Word on the street is that something could happen Monday, but the only certainty right now is tonight's deadline.
by Alexander Sliwinski May 16th 2008 10:50AM
Filed under: Business
Konami's fiscal year ending March 31 enjoyed a good rotation around the sun with $175 million in profit, an increase of 13% over the prior year.
GameDaily reports the publisher saw revenues of $2.8 billion, thanks to numerous titles in Japan,
Dance Dance Revolution on the Wii in North America and
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 in Europe.
The company gave guidance that it expects revenues of $3.15 billion this fiscal year; probably due to a game called
Metal Gear something and continued strong sales of its numerous franchises. We're certainly curious to see how
Rock Revolution -- and its
drums o' doom -- will do this fall.
by Alexander Sliwinski May 16th 2008 10:20AM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Business
Although this information has been reported on in one form or another, here's the condensed list of Sony's first-party titles coming out for PSP and PS3 in the foreseeable future:
Dates, titles and everything else are subject to change without warning. If it's LittleBigPlanet though, you'll probably hear quite a bit of whining from us first.
by Alexander Sliwinski May 16th 2008 9:10AM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Peripherals
Apparently, rumble does matter to a lot of Americans.
According to SCEA, the feedback-giving DualShock 3 had $10.9 million in sales during the month of April, meaning that about 200,000 Americans were ready to put down $55 for some vibration from their PS3 controller.
As we learned from our initial
impression of the DualShock 3: Yes, it's worth it. We do know that the
Sixaxis is on its way out, but at this point only the
MGS bundles come with the DS3. We're still waiting for the "official" changeover to occur with regular PS3 consoles.
by Alexander Sliwinski May 15th 2008 8:15PM
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360
In an interview with
Eurogamer, Microsoft Game Studios VP Shane Kim says he's "happy" the company never got into the handheld market, explaining the division has plenty on its plate with the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. He goes pretty deep into the issue, almost shutting down the idea of the
Xboy entirely by expressing Microsoft is happy to let Sony and Nintendo fight it out.
Kim believes mobile is more important for MS and Windows Mobile is a really "compelling opportunity" for the company. He explains that it's a way for the company to get into the arena without having to worry about creating more hardware. Microsoft has certainly learned that making good hardware
isn't easy and can be
hazardous.
by Alexander Sliwinski May 15th 2008 12:00PM
Filed under: Culture
OK, don't get too excited just yet.
Videogaming24/7 translated a piece from
JeuxVideo*, which states that Ubisoft's Michel Ancel allegedly confirmed
Beyond Good & Evil 2 has been in pre-production for the last year. Apparently, 10-12 people have been working on the project, but the Ubisoft suits aren't sure whether to move forward.
Beyond Good & Evil has become the stuff of industry folklore at this point. A great game that just released at the wrong time and suffered terribly at retail for it. Even if this sequel rumor is true, it would still be years away from seeing release (sad face), but at least we'd eventually get to hang with Jade, Pey'J and
Segundo once again.
*Internet cookies for the person that can give us a proper translation of the French story. by Alexander Sliwinski May 15th 2008 11:35AM
Filed under: Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Wii, Business
Nintendo has been ordered to pay $21 million to Anascape Ltd. for infringing on a patent with its Gamecube and Wii Classic controllers. The
AP reports Anascape Ltd., a "small East Texas gaming company," also sued Microsoft, but that was settled out of court. Nintendo says it will appeal the decision.
A representative for Nintendo stated that no infringement was found in any of the
Wii's motion-sensing technology and it expects that on appeal the award to Anascape will be reduced "significantly." Remember kids, if you want to stick it to some big corporation in the future and cash in, just make patents for everything imaginable.
by Alexander Sliwinski May 15th 2008 10:16AM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Business
Lazard Capital analyst Colin Sebastian
believes a price cut for the PS3 is unlikely this year. He states that Sony management is focused on achieving profitability in the PlayStation division and that a PS3 price cut won't happen in the near term.
Sony expects to sell 10 million PS3s this year,
doubling the global number of systems stationed on our little big planet. With the HD movie war in the bag and an
increase in HD television adoption, it's not unreasonable to assume the PS3 being people's go-to movie player. As this blogger's mother put it, "Why would I @$%&ing pay for a basic Blu-ray player when I can get a PS3 for the same price? I want to play my
Final Fantasy. When is my
Final Fantasy coming out?"
by Alexander Sliwinski May 14th 2008 11:30PM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Online, Puzzle
The
PlayStation Blog announced today that 20 new user-generated levels will be available in
echochrome between May 15-21, and those new levels may be replaced with even more content the following week. Despite our mixed feelings on the idea that the puzzles are replaced rather than added to a mega-list, it's still great to see how quick the
promise of free extra content for the $10 Escher-iffic puzzler was fulfilled.
The additional levels will appear randomly in freeform mode if the difficulty is set to level 2 or 3 and there's also been a
Flickr page created to give some recognition to the level designers. Definitely check out
the demo for the game if you haven't tried it,
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