Archive for May, 2007
Congratulations: Shadowrun Contest Winner
And the Shadowrun for the Xbox 360 winner is…
The Mario mushroom!
*applause*
Congrats! And much love to all who entered — your fingers impressed us all. Now, would the creator of this amazing mushroom shoot us an email at kotakucontest@gmail.com to claim the prize?
Voting Has Ended [Kotaku]
Going Down To Legoland Town: Lego MMO Details, Concept Art
The doorbell just rang, and it was a tip. From a LEGO AMBASSADOR. From LEGOLAND. I felt honoured just to be in his presence. Anyway, he was popping round to drop off a couple of bits of concept art for NetDevil’s upcoming Lego MMO, Lego Universe, as well as a few morsels of info on the game/life-consumer. Info below, art in the gallery at the bottom.
No idea what that last one means. But it certainly sounds exciting.
News: Details Released for “LEGO Universe” MMOG [Brothers Brick, Thanks Andrew, Ambassador of Legoland!]
House Of Cards: Blue Dragon Merchandizing Mania
Hey, Blue Dragon creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s gotta eat! In Japan, it’s Blue Dragon the game, the manga, the anime, the capsule toy, the soundtrack CD and the trading card game. Knew about the others, but the Blue Dragon cards are a first for me. Made by Konami, they seem to be standard RPG card game fare and is probably sold at convenience stores like other Konami card games. Still, I quite enjoy the console version and might pick up a pack of these.
Blue Dragon Card Game [Siliconera]
Shut Yo Mouth: Sony To PS3 Price-Cut Speculators: Shut Up
A lot of analysts been runnin’ their mouths about the PS3 cutting its price. Saying it might get one, that one’s coming, that it needs one real bad, blah blah. Thing is, as analysts are want to do, it’s all talk. Guesswork, even. Deciding they’ve had their fill of all the drama, Sony have put their foot down. SCEE’s director of corporate communications Nick Sharples:
There’s absolutely nothing that you can read from [speculation over price-cuts]. The idea of price certainly doesn’t follow on to any adjustment in production. Analysts may wish to think so, but there’s no basis of fact in any of it.”
We announce when changes in price will happen and we don’t discuss them beforehand.
You tell ‘em, Nick.
Sony denies drop in PS3 production [MCV]
Phat: Nintendo Still Selling Original DS Touch Pens
A few sites are reporting that the touch pen for the original DS has been discontinued. Bad news for owners who haven’t yet upgraded to the Lite. The original stylus is different from the DS Lite’s in regards to size and won’t fit in a Lite pen holder slot and vice-versa. We contacted Nintendo, who pointed us in the direction of the Nintendo Online Store and Amazon — both of which are selling the touch pens. Nintendo didn’t comment whether it had ceased selling the accessory to bricks-and-mortar retailers or stopped production, but stressed that the company continues to make the product available online. When that stops, there’s always eBay. And when you can no longer find them there, you really ought to upgrade.
Will Nobody Think Of The Trees?: ESRB Flood Indy Retailers With Signage
The ESRB has announced that they’ll be sending out signage to over 10,000 independant video game retailers across the US, in order to better promote their ratings system.
What do you think, noble endeavour or waste of paper? I’m leaning towards the latter. Having worked in retail in a previous life, I can remember only too well the complete disregard the majority of parents held towards our ratings, and they were even easier to understand (being the same as film and television). My all-time favourite was: “You think I give two shits this thing is rated MA? All his mates have got it so he’s getting it too”. Top-shelf parenting, that.
Ah well, maybe I’m just jaded, and this move will help safeguard the youth of today from the dangers of tomorrow.
ESRB Ups Support for Indie Retailers [Next-Gen]
Lolstroggs: Quake Wars Release Date Gets Closer
Activision has just released their results for the last fiscal year. Amidst the numbers (they lost $14.4 million) was news that Enemy Territory: Quake Wars‘ window of release just got a little smaller.
The company also announced that it would move the release of Enemy Territory(TM): Quake Wars into the second quarter.
Neither iD nor developer Splash Damage have set a solid, concrete a release date, but that has it pegged for a release between July-September. Right when we’ll be up to our eyeballs in a ton of other games. I’m sobbing gently to myself with despair as I come to the realisation there is no way in hell I’m going to find time to play every big game that’s coming between now and the end of the year. I haven’t even finished Final Fantasy XII yet!
Activision Reports Record Net Revenues for Fiscal 2007 [Activision]
Doki Doki: Touch Little Boys On Your DS
SNK covers all bases, all tastes. Doki Doki Majo Shinpan is not just a little girl witch touching DS game. Oh, no, no, no. It’s also a little boy witching touching DS game! A new screenshot shows that players will have to determine whether this “underage boy” is in fact a witch. As with all suspected witches in-game, touching them causes their heart rate to increase, revealing a “witch mark” on their body identifying them. Chances of this boy being a witch? Forty percent, actually. Chances of this 15 years-old-and-up rated game being a huge otaku hit? 100 percent.
Doki Doki Has a Boy [Dengeki Online via Insert Credit]
Remember, Salt!: Rumour: Nintendo Announcing Mario Kart Wii, New Hardware At E3?
Adorable Frenchmen Jeux France have run what they reckon is a “credible” rumour. Well, rumours, because there’s a few, and they all involve Nintendo. Seems at this year’s E3 we’ll not only get firm release dates for Smash Bros and Mario Galaxy, we’ll also get a “grosse révélation au niveau Hardware” [big hardware news] as well as a look at Mario Kart for the Wii.
The release dates, we expect those, and the big hardware news could be anything, so we’ll leave that well alone. But the Mario Kart thing? Feels right to me. We’re about due some more Mario Kart, particularly since it’s one of the last big Nintendo franchises we’re yet to see anything of on the Wii.
Oh, and kids, remember, these are rumours. Take your salt.
Mario Kart Wii annoncé à l’E3 ? [Rumeur] [Jeux France]
Note: Day Note: Running Again
To: Ash
From: Crecente
As I’m sure you’re aware, I spent much of the month on the road, which was, it turns out, a great excuse for me not to work out. What that meant is that this morning’s strength training with our former coach, the former Olympic runner, was not a pleasant experience. Not only did I have to contend with the results of a month of doing nothing, but I also hadn’t really fully adjusted to the altitude yet. Misery, but no vomit.
What you missed:
Craw, not Craw, CRAW!
New Achievement, it’s syphilitic!
StarCraft 2 Not this year
Postal movie could be good?
Gears of War book coming
I spent the evening crawling all over our van, the house, my office, looking for my damn DS Lite. It is, I’m beginning to suspect, lost for good. Good thing I have those DS fatboys to keep me company. I may be hitting you up for a silver one on your trip to E3, just a heads up. 
Sales Party: Simple 2000: The Japanese Hardware Chart
New Media Create hardware numbers are in and it’s nothing but good news! Even the Xbox 360 is up a whopping 18 additional units from the previous week. I’ll wait for your mind to stop reeling before I continue.
You okay? Good. Now, while Nintendo DS sales were up, as were Wii numbers for the week of May 21st through the 27th, there was a slight surge all around. Despite little in the way of marquee PlayStation 2 titles, or even a single PLAYSTATION 3 game release, both consoles were up. PS3 can see five-digit weekly sales not too far in the distance!
There is some bad news, though. Look.
- Nintendo DS Lite - 127,461
- Wii - 58,644
- PSP - 26,097
- PlayStation 2 - 11,311
- PLAYSTATION 3 - 9,627
- Xbox 360 - 2,044
- Game Boy micro - 407
- Game Boy Advance SP - 288
Yeah, it was a killer week for Game Boy Advance sales. With some bigger Wii and DS releases coming, I expect we’ll see a jump in both. That is unless folks start holding out for those new metallic paint jobs.
Clips: Tomb Raider vs. Tomb Raider: Anniversary
To say that I’m somewhat excited for Tomb Raider: Anniversary would be an understatement and an insult to your ability to read my posts over the past few weeks. While I’m not some dyed in the wool uber fan, I’ve got a soft spot for the original, so a chance to revisit the game with tolerable graphics is just my speed. Anyway, GameTrailers put together this spiffy clip comparing the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 versions showing just how far we’ve come graphically (even with a last-gen visual handicap) since the original. Lever switching and wolf slaughtering never looked so good.
Where’s My Remote: CBS To Air World Series Of Video Games
The wide world of “eSports” is coming to a television near you. CBS and the World Series of Video Games have announced that they’ve partnered to bring four hour-long recaps of WSVG events to television airwaves starting this summer. Competitive gamers will challenge eachother in titles such as World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, Guitar Hero II and Fight Night Round 3, among others.
The early airing schedule is:
July 29th - Louisville, Kentucky (Event: June 21st-24th)
August 19th - Dallas, Texas (Event: July 5th-8th)
November 17th - Los Angeles, California (Event: October 18th-21st)
December 15th - Jönköping, Sweden Saturday (Event: November 29th-December 2nd)
CBS plans to air footage of WSVG events on its CBS Sports Spectacular program. I know I’ll be watching other people play video games instead of actually playing them myself for literally minutes at a time.
CBS and WSVG Team Up for 4 TV Shows [WSVG, via 1UP]
Talk N Roll: Activision Calls Rock Band A Guitar Hero “Imitator”
Apparently, Activision execs aren’t quite clear on who was responsible for the runaway console hit Guitar Hero. According to Gamasutra, during a conference call today, Activision suits took a swipe at MTV and Harmonix’s upcoming Rock Band claiming it “wasn’t surprising that [Guitar Hero] has attracted imitators.” Wuzzat?
Obviously, Guitar Hero and Harmonix owe a great deal of their rhythmic guitar game’s design to Konami’s own Guitar Freaks, but to say that Rock Band is a Guitar Hero imitator is a bit odd.
In other Guitar Hero news, the company boasted that some 200,000 downloads of music packs have been purchased via Xbox Live and that the publisher is “just getting started” with Guitar Hero development. That even means region-tailored song choices in either downloadable content or geographically planned disc-based releases
Will the game come full circle, seeing a J-rock fueled release overseas? Who knows how Activision will continue to flog this one.
Activision Talks GH II Downloads, Rock Band, Nintendo Third-Party Woes [Gamasutra]
Zenke Delivers Massive Damage: Massive Update’s Massive Depth
Slashdot’s Michael Zenke mentioned to me earlier this month that he was now penning a regular column for 1Up about massively multiplayer games.
Massive Update, at least the most recent one, certainly lives up to it’s name, packing enough juicy tid-bits and inner machinations to fill a full newspaper page. Today’s update deals mostly with Blizzard’s suit against gold-farmers Peons4Hire and the incredibly complex finger-pointing going on over at Eve Online. What’s with that game? Even the allegations of corruption are too complicated for me to understand. I am definitely going to be taking at dip into that game in the near future to check it out. (If for no other reason then to find out why the likes of both Joel Johnson and the New York Times Seth Schiesel are so into it.)
And the coverage goes on from there, boy does it go on from there, with round-ups of ever major MMO story of the week and links to blogcasts and feature stories.
If you’re into MMO’s you’ve got to check this thing out.
Massive Update: Weekly MMO News [1Up]
News: Nintendo getting WLAN routers for the Wii?
If you’re still looking for a way to put your Wii’s wireless capabilities to use, you may be happy to know that there’s a Wii-branded WLAN router coming your way, provided that certain sources in Taiwan are correct in their assessment.
News: Nintendo soon to reach Virtual Console milestone
Next Monday’s release of Zelda II - The Adventure of Link will mark the 100th Virtual Console game to be released on American Wiis.
News: Midway releases Wii fatality list for Armageddon
With a unique control scheme also comes a unique movelist — Midway has exemplified this by releasing a chart containing the entire list of fatalities available for Mortal Kombat Armageddon for the Wii.
News: SCEE dismisses claims of PS3 production cuts
Sony Europe’s PR head recently denied earlier reports claiming that Sony is cutting down on PS3 production until their console becomes more profitable.
News: Sony sued again — Security firm aims to make Sony less secure
Yet another company has surfaced, expecting to win a legal battle over Sony’s technology. This time, a company specializing in content security has initiated a lawsuit alleging patent infringement.
