Archive for March 4th, 2007
Rumor: Japan’s XBL Sign-Up Rate? Highest In The World
Japan-based Kotakuite pokemogu sent along along article from Yukan Fuji about how Xbox Live’s doing in The Land of the Rising Sun. And how is it doing? Much, much better. Japan’s Xbox Live sign-up rate is now highest in the world, thanks to THE IDOLM@STER. Hit the jump to read the article, kindly translated by pokemogu.
THE IDOLM@STER saves the Xbox 360 in Japan? According to several sources, Japan now has the best ratio of Xbox Live sign-ups to the number of units sold.
A person connected to Microsoft explains the reason. “For now, the sales of Xbox Live in Japan are dominated by Bandai Namco’s THE IDOLM@STER. It’s amazing.”
According to that individual, the sales of Microsoft Points in Japan have increased by 230% from last year-end sales. Especially on 25th January, when THE IDOLM@STER was released, Microsoft sold 4 times as many Microsoft Points as they sold on 24th January.
Also, one month after the release, the popularity of THE IDOLM@STER in Japan has yet to decline. Likewise, items which cost 1000 Microsoft Points are selling well. (1,000 Microsoft Points cost ¥ 1,500 or US $13.)
The insider says “Our fans know that playing card games online like UNO is a lot of fun, but we think those people haven’t experienced enough. Using THE IDOLM@STER, we would like to start showing how Xbox Live is fun.”
Xbox Live In Japan [Yukan-Fuji, Thanks pokemogu!]
Weekend Note: Wrapping Up Loose Ends
To: Ash
From: Flynn
Subject: Kingdom Hearts II is like a long lost friend
Hidee Ho! Hope you had a nice relaxing weekend. Things were pretty quiet around here so I decided to start trying to finish some of these games that have been sitting uncompleted for a while. This weekend I concentrated on Kingdom Hearts II which was really nice to come back to. I’m hoping to get at least two finished by the time God of War II hits next week.
Some things you might have missed over the weekend:
• Some really incredible new Bioshock gameplay footage came out.
• JayIsGames posted the finalists in their Flash Game Competition. You should check it out , there’s some really good stuff on there.
• Ivan Flores created some of the most amazing pieces of Samus fan art I’ve ever seen.
• And this was just too cute for words
Next weekend I’ll be reporting from San Francisco since I’m staying a couple of extra days after the GDC. So, until then, Sayonara!
Week in Games: GRAW2 Edition
My personal game budget is going for God of War II next week, but there’s still a quite a few things out this week to get excited about. Ghost Recon is sure to fly off the shelves along with Wario: Master of Disguise and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City stories. I’d be picking up Wario, but my list of DS games I need to finish has gotten ridiculously long, so he’ll just have to wait.
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (X360, PC)
The triumphant return of the tactical shooting game. - Def Jam: Icon (X360, PS3)
Fight your way to the top of the Hip Hop world. - Titan Quest: Immortal Throne (PC)
The new expansion to Titan Quest with 12 hours of new content. - MotorStorm (PS3)
Race the night away on the PS3. - Wario: Master of Disguise (DS)
Wario’s version is so much cooler than Dana Carvey’s. - Burnout Dominator (PS2, PSP)
More racing action for the PS2 and PSP - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2)
Lots of new material to piss off you know who. - Rayman Raving Rabbids (DS)
Those irrepressible rabbids invade the DS. - Tortuga - Two Treasures (PC)
More swashbuckling action than you can shake a sword at. Eyepatch not included.
UK Game Store Offers Exclusive Weapon With GRAW2 Preorder
UK game store, GAME, is offering a free downloadable weapon with pre-orders of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 on their website. When the game releases this Friday, everyone who pre-ordered will receive an email with a code that will allow them to download the “GAME exclusive” Famas gun. If you’ve already placed your pre-order with GAME, never fear as they have confirmed that you’ll be getting the special weapon email as well.
The U.K. gets shafted a lot on downloadable content by getting things really late or sometimes not at all, so it’s nice to see them get something cool like this. How long the Famas gun will actually be an exclusive, however, remains to be seen.
Pre-order GR:AW 2 and get a free gun [XBoxic]
The Joystiq Weekend: March 3 - 4, 2007
Filed under: Nintendo GameCube
Joystiquery
Japanese hardware sales, Feb. 19 - Feb. 25: never say noir edition
Today’s hottest video: New Battlefield teaser
Weekly Webcomic Wrapup: poison mushroom edition
News
AP ignores Paris, who should we ignore?
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl goes G.O.L.D.
Planetside monthly subscription going up by $2
First ever HD South Park episode for free on Xbox Live Marketplace
In defense of the “PlayStation generation”
Pepsi taps into today’s culture with … pinball?
Trippy Flash game To-Suta involves flying toasters, rainbows
Rumors & Speculation
PlayStation 2: thriving or failing?
Culture & Community
Give us these DS games … or else!
Zelda music nails the golden ratio
Student Postmortem with DigiPen’s Toblo
Pokemon Online taunts Nintendo’s lawyers
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New Crysis Screens
Worth Playing has managed to get their hands on a bunch of new Crysis screens for your perusal. This ones gonna be a sure fire hit on the PC, and I know a lot of people are still crossing their fingers for a 360 version. There’s still no word on an official release date after the announcement was made that it would be delayed back in December. Until then we’ll just have to be satisfied with more of these stunning screens and the myriad videos that are circulating the interwebs.
To check out all twelve shots, head over to WorthPlaying’s gallery.
‘Crysis’ - 12 Screens [WorthPlaying]
The Littlest Link
File this one under “Things that make you go awwwwww.”
Conventions are always a great place to see cosplay. The costumes and their wearers range from the really amazing to the completely embarrassing. On his recent foray to WonderCon, Game|Life’s Chris Kohler was able to snap a pic of this tiny Link cosplayer. He was quite popular apparently and his outfit is impeccable, note the bomb and Rupee bag attached to his belt. I only wish he had the shield up where we could see it, because according to Chris it was right on. I’m glad to see the little guy didn’t have to resort to the same kind of hideous yellow yarn wigs and cheap accoutrement we often see on some of our, how shall we say, more mature cosplayers. The only thing that could make this better is if he made the outfit himself.
Wondercon: The Littlest Link Cosplayer [Game|Life]
Clip: Bioshock: Hunting The Big Daddy Gameplay
Every piece of new media I see for Bioshock makes the unbearable wait until August 21 seem even longer. In this clip, Content Producer Melissa Miller takes us through seven glorious minutes of Bioshock gameplay where we get to see the use of several different weapons and plasmids, Bioshock’s instant genetic modification abilities. The highlight of the clip, as the title implies, is a battle with one of the old fashioned diving suit wearing Big Daddies.
The Big Daddy might certainly be scary, but the sight of that creepy little girl sucking juices out of a dead body with a giant hypodermic and then drinking them will haunt my dreams forever.
Trippy Flash game To-Suta involves flying toasters, rainbows
You are a flying toaster. You can shoot rainbows out of your mouth. The Katamari Damacy theme song is playing in the background. This would normally be the point where you wake up in a cold sweat and discover your crayons are missing, but no, it’s just To-Suta. A simple side-scrolling shooter done in Flash, To-Suta is just crazy enough to be fun. Play it, enjoy it, just don’t question why it exists.
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Collectible Merchandise For The Halo Obsessed
Corgi International is one of those places that makes collectible items for obsessed fans of various franchises. For instance, on their site right now, you can purchase several replicas of rings worn by Johnny Depp in Pirates of The Caribbean or a limited edition Luke Skywalker blaster from Star Wars.
In their recent newsletter, Corgi has announced a new partnership with Microsoft to start producing collectible Halo merchandise as part of their Master Replicas collection. Inspiration for the pieces will based on all three games in the Halo series. In addition to their own products, they will also be distributing Kotobukiya’s sure to be amazing Halo figure collection.
Seeing Corgi’s attention to detail and bizarre minutia, I won’t be surprised to start seeing things like replica Halo armor, helmets and Master Chiefs collectible jock strap.
Master Replicas announces alliance with Microsoft [Corgi International]
Pokemon Online taunts Nintendo’s lawyers
A group of dedicated Pokemaniacs have slathered what we like to call “lawyer bait” all over their massively-multiplayer online RPG project called, creatively enough, Pokemon Online. In a move sure to attract those slippery law-hounds, POL is even using Nintendo’s own artwork, game assets and displays advertisements on their site.
The game is in early beta stages and you can’t do much more than run around and get into a few simple battles for now. Who knows how far they’ll get before the inevitable flood of cease-and-desist paperwork arrives? It’s a shame, too — Pokemon is one of those franchises that begs to be MMORPG-ized. Rename the project, slap a new logo on there and overhaul the graphics and POL might just survive. Otherwise, prepare for massive damage.
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This Day in Gaming, March 4th
2000: Sony releases the Playstation 2 console in Japan. With over 115 million units shipped, the system is a massive success—even outselling the original Playstation. While the console had a minimal appearance, its trademark blue LED was entrancing for its time. Oh yeah, and it pushed a lot of polygons, too.
So what is your favorite Playstation 2 moment/what is your favorite PS2 title? Playing SSX for the first time has to be up there in my book, despite it being far from the greatest game in the PS2’s extensive library.
Have gaming history, trivia, or famous birthdays you’d like to see in TDIG? Drop us a line at tdig@kotaku.com
The Cactuar Cake
Kotakuite Shaunomacx’s girlfriend loves Cactuars. According to him, she eats, drinks and sleeps Cactuars. So, for her birthday, Shaunomacx made her this terrific Cactuar cake! These little anthropomorphic cacti have made an appearance in every Final Fantasy game in one form or another since Final Fantasy VI, so my guess is that the girlfriend is probably also a big Final Fantasy fan. As Shaunomacx succinctly put it in his email,
What else can you get a girl who has a plush Cacty as well as a nice Cactuar styled hat?
Wow, a Cactuar styled hat. I can only begin to imagine what that looks like.
PlayStation 2: thriving or failing?
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Business
With all the brouhaha over the new generation of game systems, what’s to become of the 100-million-unit-selling lord of the last generation — the PlayStation 2? Well, it depends on who you ask.
On the one side is this Reuters report, which is positively bubbly about the system’s enduring sales and impact in light of more powerful competitors. Indeed, the $130 system outsold the Xbox 360 and PS3 in January, and had two of the top ten selling games that month.
On the other side, you have this post on Dubious Quality which notes that the big-five publishers only have ten combined games announced for the system from June onward this year. Electronic Arts alone has ten games listed for the PlayStation 3 in the same period, despite the newer system’s much smaller installed base.
So is the PS2’s future rosy or ruinous? The determination really hinges on how many of those 100 million PS2 owners worldwide are still actively using their systems and how many have traded them in or boxed them up in the closet. The sales of God of War II, due to be released next week, will give a good indication of just how much oomph this aging system has left.
Read - Thriving
Read - Failing
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First Official Transformers: The Game Screenshot Appears
At this point, everyone is waiting to see if the new Transformers Movie is going to suck, although I think most people have already decided it will. But, Transformers: The Game still holds some hope, even though it’s essentially based on the movie. Activision hasn’t really released much if any, media for the game, so we were very excited to see this Xbox 360 screenshot end up in our mailbox. I would have liked to see some Optimus Prime action, but I suppose I can settle for Bumblebee. Pretty silly name for a robot, but at least he looks badass. I wonder if he still turns into a VW Beetle?
Make the jump to check out a factsheet on the game.
TRANSFORMERS: THE GAME
FACT SHEET FOR ALL VERSIONS (Gameplay information based on console and PC versions)
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:
Based on TRANSFORMERS, DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures’ upcoming live-action feature film due out July 4th, and produced in association with Hasbro, TRANSFORMERS: The Game lets gamers control the outcome in the battle for Earth as they choose to protect it as AUTOBOTS or destroy it as DECEPTICONS. Players will also experience the unstoppable power and massive scale of their favorite ROBOTS IN DISGUISE such as BUMBLEBEE, BARRICADE and others.
KEY FEATURES:
• Protect Or Destroy The Earth - As the TRANSFORMERS robot’s war comes to Earth, gamers make the choice to join the AUTOBOTS in protecting our planet or to join the DECEPTICONS in destroying it. With dual campaigns, the fate of the world is in players’ hands.
• MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE - Instantly change from a larger than life robot to a high-powered vehicle such as a sports car, fighter jet or helicopter. Seamless transformations leave enemies in the dust or enhance players’ combat strategy with a range of options in both vehicle and robot modes that take full advantage of the characters’ dual forms.
• The World Is Your Playground - Players crush, topple and wreck every object, including buildings and vehicles, in their path or use the objects as weapons. It is up to the gamer to decide how best to use their surrounding environment.
• Freedom of Choice - An unprecedented line-up lets gamers experience the massive scale, unique abilities and sheer strength of an army of characters from the TRANSFORMERS universe when they choose to play as OPTIMUS PRIME, MEGATRON, IRONHIDE, STARSCREAM, BUMBLEBEE and more.
• Variety of Combat - For head-to-head battles, fans engage in melee combat that reflects each TRANSFORMERS robot’s character, scale, weight and power along with melee weapons and special moves unique to each character. The game’s ranged combat offers a wide array of projective weapons designed to take out enemies from afar.
• PlayStation® Portable Features - The PSP version features 20 playable AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS, from both the live-action film and previous generations, that battle through an enhanced version of the film’s storyline. Players can customize their character by choosing more than 10 different weapon types in both single and adhoc multiplayer gameplay.
Publisher: Activision, Inc.
Developer: Traveller’s Tales (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PC)
Savage (PSP)
Vicarious Visions (NDS)
Release Date: Summer 2007
SRP: TBD
ESRB Rating: “RP” (Rating Pending)
Pepsi taps into today’s culture with … pinball?
So let’s get this straight. Coca-cola, looking for inspiration for a high-profile ad, apes Grand Theft Auto, a best-selling series that has inspired countless knock-offs and holds incredible relevance in today’s pop culture landscape. Pepsi, on the other hand, creates a TV ad based on pinball, a once-popular arcade staple that has declined over the decades to the point where only one company in the world is still making tables. At this rate, we can expect RC Cola to come out with an ad based on bagatelle any day now.
Continue reading Pepsi taps into today’s culture with … pinball?
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PocketGamer: Give Us These DS Games… NOW!
U.K. games website, PocketGamer, has posted a great list of games that they would like to see come to the Nintendo DS. I have to say the list is pretty dead on, especially in picking games that would take advantage of the DS’s touch screen and control scheme. A few standouts on the list include Mario Paint, Okami, Marble Madness and a collection of Lucas Arts Games.
Okami might be a bit of a stretch, but a Lucas Arts collection with Monkey Island and especially Maniac Mansion would be sweet. I won’t ruin the whole list for you, but instead point you to PocketGamer’s site so you can check it out for yourself. If you have any genius ideas on old games that would make perfect ports to the DS, tell us about em in the comments. Come on, you know you want to.
DS Most Wanted: 10 games we demand NOW! [PocketGamer]
Clip: Giant Xbox 360 Invades India
To celebrate the launch of the Xbox 360 game, Yuvraj Singh International Cricket 2007, in India, a human sized Xbox 360 was constructed and autographed by an Indian celebrity. Since I can only hear the celebrity’s name mentioned in the clip, I will not embarrass myself by trying to spell it. But, suffice it to say that said Indian celebrity signed the massive 360 as a good luck charm for India’s cricket team for the upcoming 2007 Cricket World Cup.
While it’s a lovely gesture, I’m sure the cricket team would have rather received a 360 that actually works. And besides, where the hell are they going to put that thing?
[via The Xbox Collector - Thanks, Chris]
In defense of the “PlayStation generation”
Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP
Jack Thompson isn’t the only one worried about the deleterious effects of video games on our youth. U.S. Department of Homeland Security executive Jay Cohen recently told PC World magazine about an “[education] crisis in this country” caused by a “PlayStation generation” that wants quick thrills and avoids difficult subjects like math and science.
We understand that Cohen might just be using the “PlayStation generation” moniker as a convenient, rhyming shorthand for a new group of students who’ve grown up with the near-ubiquitous system. And we understand that there is a real problem with math and science education in this country, especially when compared with the rest of the world. But to imply that students raised on modern video games are easily distracted and afraid of a challenge is simply nonsense.
Ask any gamer who’s gotten a 100 percent completion in Grand Theft Auto III if they were inclined to give up because it was “too hard.” Ask the new breed of professional gamers if they are reluctant to practice for hours a day because the competition is “too hard.” Ask the thousands of fans who’ve decided to develop mods for their favorite game if they were discouraged from learning the necessary programming skills because it was “too hard.”
Students aren’t shying away from math and science because the subjects are hard — they’re shying away because no one has made these subjects interesting to them. Instead of vilifying video games for encouraging instant gratification, our educators should be trying to learn what makes these games so engaging and applying these same techniques to their math and science courses. It’s amazing what students are willing to learn if the lessons are hidden in the guise of something fun.
[Update: Fixed a grammar error. Thanks malwin.]
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Ad: God of War II Coming to PSP
A 1Upper landed an early copy of the retail version of God of War II. As a source told us last week, the instruction manual has an advertisement for God of War for the Playstation Portable on back cover.
The ad shows the familiar God of War symbol with PSP written in the middle of it and Coming 2007 underneath.
Unless someone happened to photoshop what a different tipster told us a week ago, this rumor sounds like it is confirmed. If it’s true you can bet on the official unveiling coming at GDC next week. It sounds like Sony is going to be belting out a lot of interesting and exciting news at this year’s event.
God of War II…YES PLEASE!! [1Up]
