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E3 2007 Officially Downsized

True to the plan, ESA, the organization behind E3 has today announced its plans for the event in 2007. Just as we expected, the E3 as we know it is over, and will from 2007 be an event for press and retailers only. Avid gamers will no longer be able to try out new and upcoming games at the event.

ESA (Entertainment Software Association) president Douglas Lowenstein says in a press release:

“To better address the needs of today’s global computer and video game industry, the 2007 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3Expo) is evolving into a more intimate event focused on targeted, personalized meetings and activities, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced today.”

E3 2007 will still be hosted in Los Angeles, Lowenstein says, over the next few months they will decide what shape E3 will return in. He mentioned that there was no reason for E3 to be a big event because of the presence of Tokyo Game Show and Leipzig Games Convention. He continues:

“E3Expo remains an important event for the industry and we want to keep that sense of excitement and interest, ensuring that the human and financial resources crucial to its success can be deployed productively to create an exciting new format to meet the needs of the industry. The new event ensures that there will be an effective and more efficient way for companies to get information to media, consumers, and others.”

The average gamer will certainly be disappointed by this news, and I believe that some developers might be disappointed as well, since they cannot get any feedback on the games they display. The uge crowd of people at E3 made it popular in the first place, everyone that has been there will tell you just how many gamers visit the event. I think this is a wrong step by ESA.

Read the full press release here.

New Red Steel Screens

Ubisoft released a few new screenshots of Red Steel, the anticipated Wii launch title. Check out the rest after the jump.
Official site

Read more

Japanese Xbox360 Boss Says PS3 Is Too Expensive (doh!?)

Microsoft Xbox360’s Japanese general manager Takahashi Sensui claims Sony’s PlayStation 3 is too expensive for Japanese gamers. He said it would not offer a better gaming experience than the Xbox360, but will cost a lot more. The basic PS3 model will sell for 62790 yen, or $550. We already know that the PS3 is very expensive and isn’t that much better than the 360.

However, how much can an Xbox360 Japanese boss predict about the PS3, when his own console was outsold by the GameCube in 2006? Microsoft is completely out of the next-gen war in Japan, and they have partially acknowledged that fact.

Whether the PS3 is going to sell will soon be known, what is certain now is that the 360 is not selling in Japan, no matter how much PR MS throws out.

Read

Rumor: Detailed Wii Specs

Every now and then, a site posts a Wii secret revealed exclusively to them by a secret Nintendo insider, or someone that knows someone that knows a Nintendo hardware engineer. This time, MaxConsole posts a detailed list of Wii’s hardware, including info on the CPU, GPU, RAM etc. Some of these specs were revealed by IGN a few months ago, but not in detail as here;

- Nintendo Wii’s ‘Broadway’ CPU operates at 729MHZ with a maximum bandwidth of 1.9gbyte/sec.
- Nintendo Wii’s ‘Hollywood’ GPU is clocked at 243MHZ, the internal memory of it includes 3mb of embedded graphics memory and 24 MB of high speed main memory.
- 64megabytes of GDDR3 (MEM2) as the external main memory. Just like the internal memory, it can be accessed from the CPU and GPU with a maximum bandwidth of 4gbytes/sec and can also store programs in the MEM2.
- The GPU of the Wii is identical to the GameCube’s but it is on average 1.5X faster.

Full list of specs can be found here. We don’t have to remind you that none of it is official, right?

Offcial Halo Faceplate Coming

The weekly Bungie news update mentions that the first official Halo faceplate for the Xbox360 will be available sometime in October.

The faceplate shows Master Chief posing in front of an abstract blue background. The have also announced a faceplate contest, where gamers can design their own Halo faceplate and win one of the official plates before they’re in the stores.

E3 Cancelled, Or Downsized?

GameSpot reports that ESA, the organization behind E3 will make an announcement tomorrow revealing their plans to downsize E3 only for the press. GameSpot’s Curt Feldman writes:

One reason behind the downsizing of the show can be attributed to the dollar cost of the event to exhibitors, including the demands on companies to assign large numbers of staff to focus on the show, expenses associated with travel to the show, and the added expense to polish game builds and demos to be shown to attendees.

E3, the biggest gaming event quite expensive for the exhibitors, but it’s certain that the larger publishers and developers are getting some very decent PR out of it. The focus however, is on the smaller developers, without huge sums of cash to spend on E3.

E3 2006 attracted some 60,000 people and over 400 exhibitors were displaying their games, movies and hardware. The hotels and service industry in L.A. take in over 50 million during E3 every year, the same amount that attendees and exhibitors spend during the three-day event. Looks like it’s simply too expensive to everyone involved.
Nevertheless, the loss of E3 will certainly be a huge disappointment for the average gamer, and blogger as well.

Read (GameSpot)

Dawn of War Coming To Xbox360 And PS3?

Relic Entertainment’s Ron Movarek recently spoke to GameIndustry.biz about their upcoming RTS Company of Heroes. He revealed that the game would most likely be ported to the Xbox360 and PS3, alongside the popular RTS Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.

He said it all depended on how the console version of LOTR: Battle for Middle-earth 2 is doing. If it’s successful and gamers embrace a strategy game on a console, they would jump on the wagon.

Although he stated that they would not develop for the Wii due to the fact that it’s weak for the sort of graphics Relic is doing, he is still confident that it will succeed:

“I think it was really smart for Nintendo to break out on their own and do their own thing. The platform’s going to be really successful.”

Read (GameIndustry.biz)

PS3 To Have Achievement Points

According to the latest EGM podcast, Editor Dan Hsu claims that PS3 achievements will be called “Entitlements”. Of course they couldn’t just call them “Achievements”, that would be a blatant rip-off. Like with the innovative new controller.

Although this is a pure podcast rumor, considering the popularity of achievements for the Xbox360, it’s not hard to imagine Sony, and even Nintendo, doing something similar. Nevertheless, calling it “Entitlements” just sounds a bit, well, lame.

F.E.A.R. Expansion Website Up

Only 18 days until the arrival of the first F.E.A.R. expansion pack, Extraction Point. The new game continues the same storyline that was featured in the original, with new weapons, enemies and locations. There’s not much on the site, except the line “Combat is coming”. Oh it sure is.

Official Site

Sopranos For Xbox360 Cancelled

Two months ago, THQ announced they are developing a game based on The Sopranos, HBO’s popular TV-series. They have now confirmed the cancellation of the Xbox360 version. During a recent conference call with analysts, THQ CFO Edward K. Zinser talked about recent quarter earnings, and how that affects future development of new games.

“Amortization of 18 percent was up three points versus the prior year quarter. This is primarily due to our decision to discontinue development of the Sopranos for Xbox 360. There is no change to our plans to replace it, but we will release it on PS2 during the holiday season.”

The game now looks to be a PS2 exclusive, although some suggest that it’s only a delay. It seems that THQ needs time to polish the Xbox360 version, which is almost a complete port from the PS2 version. That certainly wouldn’t look too good on the 360.

Official Nintendo DS Headset

Japanese retailer HMV lists the official DS headset for a September 14 release, a date that Nintendo of Japan has confirmed. The combined microphone and headset uses Bluetooth technology and will be available for 1,200 Yen ($10USD). You can use the headset in games like Metroid Prime Hunters, Nintendogs, Mario Kart DS, and others.

There is no US or European release date announced yet.

Japanese Hardware/Software Sales

Japanese hardware and software sales for the week ending July 23. Nintendo is firmly on top of both charts, the DS Lite sells more than all other consoles combined, while New Super Mario Bros. retakes the top spot in software sales.

Hardware sales:

DS Lite: 262,453
PSP: 35,938
PS2: 22,288
DS: 6,344
GBA SP: 2,953
Xbox 360: 1,472
GameBoy Micro: 1,410
GameCube: 1,076
GBA: 20
Xbox: 0

Software sales top 5:

New Super Mario Bros. (DS, Nintendo)
Shaberu! DS Oryouri Navi (DS, Nintendo Japan)
Battle Stadium D.O.N. (PS2, Namco Bandai)
Brain Age (DS, Nintendo)
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyu 13 (PS2, Konami)

Clearly the mania about the DS Lite isn’t over just yet. And yet another blow to Microsoft, not a single Xbox unit sold, big brother Xbox360 was almost outsold by the GameBoy Micro.

Via MediaCrate

EA Officially Announces LOTR: BFME2 - TROTWK

EA has officially announced the first expansion pach for their successful RTS The Battle For Middle-Earth 2. The new title will be called The Lord of The Rings: Battle For Middle-Earth: The Longest Game Title Ever. Well, not exactly, The Rise of The Witch King is the correct title for the expansion. Nevertheless, it’s one of the longest videogame titles I’ve seen. Ever.

The game will be released this winter, only for PC. It will contain a completely new faction and a new single player campaign. As the title suggests, the game will be somewhat focusing on the “evil side”, letting the player explore the othe side Middle-earth.

EA Announces The Sims 2: Pets

As if EA hasn’t released enough expansion packs to its Sims franchise, now they’re trying again with Pets. If Nintendo could do it with Nintendogs, sure EA can. The game will be an expansion on the PC, but released independently on PS2, GameCube, DS, PSP and GBA.

The Sims 2: Pets will let players create their own pets and teach them tricks, take care of them, and so on. There will be 35 different pre-made dog breeds and 15 different pre-made cat breeds. Expect it to launch on October 17, 2006.

New Maelstrom Screens

Codemasters just released a bunch of new screenshots of KD Vision’s futuristic RTS Maelstrom, which will ship this September. Maelstrom is set only 50 years in the future, where humans are not only fighting against an alien invasion, but against each other as well. More screens after the jump.

Official Site

Read more

Codemasters Sign In-Game Ad Deal

Codemasters has signed a deal with IGA Worldwide to bring in game advertisments in titles developed and published by Codemasters. The deal is a multi-title multi-platform agreement that includes titles such as Colin McRae: DIRT and Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 (not released in the US).

The ads will be delivered using IGA’s Radial in-game ad serving technology, which can deliver static ads and interactive product placement. Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens says about the deal:

“Advertising in games generates additional revenue that publishers can offset against product development costs. However, it’s critical for the ad placements to complement the highly immersive gaming experience of our games across current and future platforms. Following significant due diligence on the market we believe that IGA is ideally placed to deliver on all of these key points.”

Via Gamasutra

Splinter Cell Double Agent Delayed

Plenty of delays announced this summer. First, it was Enemy Territory: Quake Wars that was moved into 2007 for further testing, and then Neverwinter Nights 2 was delayed by over a month, for some more testing and polishing. Now Ubisoft has announced that Splinter Cell Double Agent has been delayed to the end of October, instead of September as originally planned. I guess they too need to do some more testing. You can’t get enough testing these days, remember Battlefield 2?

Via GameSpot

Gearbox Confirms Wii Support

Gearbox has confirmed support for Nintendo’s upcoming Wii console. The developer of Brothers In Arms has posted a message on the official site saying they plan to develop for the console in the near future. No other details have been released, and as usual, we can only guess whether Brothers in Arms will appear on the Wii, or a completely new title.

Gearbox is known for the Brothers In Arms series but has made a number of ports of other games, including the PC version of Halo and the PS2 version of Half Life. Their next game, Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway is scheduled for a 2007 release on PC, PS3 and Xbox360.

Read (Gearbox)

Possible Region-Free Wii?

During an interview with IGN, Nintendo’s Perrin Kaplan, VP of Marketing and Corporate Affaris, was asked whether we could expect the Wii to be region-free. She replied:

“Clearly, the success of Nintendo DS has offered a lot of lessons about what works in the marketplace - and we certainly intend to keep our fans satisfied. For the Wii system, we are finalizing all the relevant details and will be making announcements in the coming months.”

Nintendo would certainly benefit from a region-free console, the region-free DS is quite popular when you think about the amount of games that are being imported from Japan. Gamers don’t have to wait several months before a certain title appears in the Western part of the world. Kaplan continues:

“You’re right that the region-free approach has proved to be a successful and attractive feature for Nintendo WiFi Connection on Nintendo DS we have even blown the doors off our own anticipated numbers! Cost, ease-of-use and player privacy are the three things that were a focus for us with Nintendo WiFi Connection. Those priorities also will apply to the Wii system.”

So we can say with 99% accuracy that the Wii will be region-free, simply because it’s a proven concept and makes sense, both financially for Nintendo and for the gamers.

New PSP Firmware Update

Sony has released firmware edition 2.80 for the PlayStation Portable. You can download it via the network feature on your PSP. The new firmware contains following features/updates:

• You can now download video and image content under [RSS Channel];
• You can now register devices via a wireless LAN access point under [LocationFree Player];
• You can now play AAC files with file extension .3gp under [Music]; and
• You can now play content saved in “Music,” “Picture” and “Video” folders on a Memory Stick. (Apparently, this means you don’t have to rename video files, and you can play them without using special folders.)

Via PSPFanboy

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