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PAL Playstation Network Prices Announced

Sony has announced the European prices for the Playstation Network, where games can be bought online and stored to your hard drive. The launch title prices are listed below.

• Blast Factor - £3.49
• Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection £6.99
• Gran Turismo HD - Free

All future games will be competitively priced from £1.99 through £6.99. They are significantly cheaper than that of the Xbox Live and Virtual Console services, which both range from £4.00 to £9.00. Fans should be happy to see that Gran Turismo HD is free of charge, just like in the United States.

Big News for PS3 at GDC

GDC is now just less than a week away, and kicking off the event will be Sony’s Phil Harrison who is a keynote speaker. One thing we can probably be certain of already is that he will have some sort of announcement. Now, our interests are peaked in an interview GameDaily had with conference director Jamil Moledina. This is what he had to tease about in the interview:

“Not to be coy but you’ll just have to come to his talk. All I can say is that I stand behind my ‘very happy’ comment.”

Jamil does not work for Sony, but we can imagine he has a good idea about the contents of the keynote. The media has been really down on Sony lately, so it’ll be interesting to see how this announcement pans out. Or if it will be soon forgotten after Shigeru Miyamoto’s keynote two days after.

Read (GameDaily)

GRAW2 Goes Gold

Ubisoft has announced that Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 has officially reached gold status. The game has entered production and will be ready to ship on Thursday, March 8th. They have also said that there will be an in-game Achievements tracking menu for every single multiplayer achievement. This means that, it will be easier to find out just how much more work you will need to put in to unlock the next achievement.

Read (gameSlave)

Man Dies During Gaming Marathon

A 26-year-old man from China died during the Lunar New Year holiday after taking part in a non-stop “gaming marathon.” The man reportingly played during most of the holiday. Although, the man was severely obese, so maybe that was the real reason why the man from Jinzhou collapsed. The game(s) he was playing were not mentioned, so at least no bad public relations will occur from this. DigitalBattle has the most sincere condolences for the family.

Read (EvilAvatar)

Next-Gen Games: Non-Profitable

A fresh report made by Screen Digest shows us that next generation games are non-profitable. By using survey data from major software publishers, the report provides an overview of third party attitudes to making games the new console platforms.
The new games for the new consoles uses a lot of resources and time, so the financial investments is insecure. It will take up to the year 2010 in order for publishers to make any profit on the games.

The report tells us that the strategy to make a game exclusive for one console is far more better than publishing a title to multiple consoles. Microsoft uses this strategy, as in games like Gears of Wars; the financial investments were good, because the game only was exclusively released for one console.

It’s worse for the independent game developers, who invest all their money in one game. The result can be a big financial mistake. The strategy today is to buy the independent game developers and only create games for one console.

Beatmania IIDX Coming to US

The extremely popular Japanese music bemani arcade game, Beatmania, is finally coming to the United States. Unfortunately, Konami will only be providing one coin-op machine of Beatmania IIDX 14: Gold. This will be a trial period to see how the sales are, and if successful, there is a chance we will be seeing more machines pop up around the country. Play the game while you can, as the test won’t last forever. If you’re lucky enough, you can play the game starting March 5th, at a bowling center in Naperville, Illinois.

Read (Joystiq)

Sony Denies Lack of PS3 Interest

Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, is claiming that the stacks of unsold Playstation 3’s are a sign of how good the company is managing in handling the production of the PS3, not the lack of interest in the new console. Instead, he says he is pleased to see so many unsold PS3s sitting on shelves.

“Our goal is to fill shelves across the United States. Our goal is not to have empty shelves; it’s to have full shelves. If we have empty shelves, that’s one less consumer who could have bought a PlayStation 3.”

Read (IGN)

Manhunt 2 Targeted by Thompson

It wasn’t too long ago that Rockstar announced the sequel to Manhunt. And it didn’t take too long for Jack Thompson to react to it either. It turns out he has been asked by “certain individuals in the UK” to help stop the distribution of the upcoming game.

Manhunt was the center of dispute in a UK case: the murder of Stefan Pakeerah by his friend Warren LeBlanc in 2004. The game was pulled from stores following complaints and calls from conservative media publications; however, it was later found that there was no link between the game and the murder, and, in fact, the victim himself was the owner of the game rather than the killer.

At the moment it is not known how Thompson plans on stopping the game. We expect him to make his moves quickly, as Manhunt 2 is set for release this Summer.

WoW Addict Goes to Jail

The latest case of World of Warcraft addiction comes from Alaska where a gamer was busted by the police for leeching off the library Wi-Fi network to play the MMORPG online. Brian Tanner, 21, as per the article, had been chased out of quite a few places for leeching off Wi-Fi hotspots, and this is the latest case.

He is now waiting to see if he can be convicted. Apparently, usage of library networks entails following a set of policies set by the government, which includes not using it after hours.

Too bad for Turner, as his laptop was seized, and there isn’t any WoW in prison.

SimCity Goes Dual Screen

Electronic Arts announced today that SimCity franchise is returning with SimCity DS, developed especially for the Nintendo DS platform. In addition to creating and growing your very own pocket sized city while being on-the-go, players will be able to leverage the unique action features of the Nintendo DS system, discovering an entirely new way to play this internationally acclaimed franchise. The product will make its debut to consumers worldwide in summer of this year.  Players will also be able to create and control their city on there own free will…and much more. Maximizing the stylus and built-in microphone controls of the Nintendo DS, SimCity DS brings to the franchise like never before the feeling of personal involvement with your city—from blowing into the microphone to put out fires in the city to signing off on mayoral proclamations with your stylus. By enabling the players to communicate with each other, the “wireless data exchange” feature brings additional interactivity into the game. As an added bonus to SimCity fans around the world, the game also offers a wide array of recognizable international landmarks to spice up your city.

Read (GameZone)

Captain N: Now on DVD

Remember the Kevin Keene, who was transported to Videoland? He is also known as Captain N: The Game Master. The show was shown early Saturday mornings on NBC, and is seldom remembered by all old-school fans, as the series was quite short. In case you missed out on the action, or want to take a nostalgic ride into the past, it’s only $23.99 away.

All 26 episodes of the Captain N: The Game Master series has been released on DVD. The disc also includes animated character bios, a look at the concept art, and a Nintendo Power feature about the story. You can purchase it at Amazon.

Read (BBPS)

It’s Christmas for the Wii

Data Design Interactive, announced today that it is planning on porting a dozen of its upcoming games to the Wii console. Currently, the company is in the process of porting six games to the Wii. These games are to be release in the second quarter 2007, with another six games games following later in the year.

The full list of upcoming Data Design Interactive games is:

• Action Girlz Racing
• Hamster Heroes
• Monster Trux Extreme: Offroad Edition
• Anubis II
• NinjaBread Man
• Myth Makers: Trixie in Toyland
• Mini Desktop Racing
• Billy the Wizard
• London Taxi: Rushour
• Myth Makers Orbs of Doom
• Myth Makers Super Kart GP
• Earache Extreme Metal Racing
• Elviz - Rock N Roll Adventures

Read (IGN)

MGS3 Going Offline

Konami has announced that the Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence servers will be permanently shut down on April 3rd.

“The last day of online service for Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence in North America will be April 2nd. Konami sincerely thanks all of the Subsistence online community for their dedication to the game and support of the Metal Gear Solid series.“

The reason why this may be happening is to attract more fan base to Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, which also has online multiplayer. So everyone that has this game should play it to the fullest while they can. An online petition has been setup, but those usually don’t work. It doesn’t hurt to sign it, though.

Read (GameSpy)

Probst Out of the Picture

The dominant force in video game publishing, Electronic Arts, has found it best to replace Larry Probst, as CEO, this past Monday. His predecessor is none other than former Electronics Arts executive John Riccitiello. Riccitiello will take the title of EA CEO on April 2nd.

Riccitiello, who joined “Redwood City, Calif.-based EA” in October of 1997, resigned in April 2004. Probst will still remain in EA as executive chairman of EA’s board of directors. He has been criticized on Wall Street for his failure to encourage new titles, but instead rely on sequels. He has this to say,

“The right time to put a new CEO in place is when good times are ahead, as opposed to challenging times. That’s the recommendation I made to the board, and they agreed unanimously.”

Read (Yahoo! Finance)

Major League Baseball 2K7 Now Available

Just today, 2K Sports announced that Major League Baseball 2K7 is now available in stores all across North America for the Xbox 360 ($59.99), Xbox ($29.99), PS2 ($29.99), PS3 ($59.99), and the PSP ($29.99).

Major League Baseball 2K7 offers over 300 unique player animations. So players will instantly recognize the unique pitching styles, batting rituals, and characteristic movements of their favorite MLB players. Major League Baseball 2K7 also offers a range of new replay camera perspectives showcasing the high quality of the next generation visuals, including camera shots outside ballparks, dynamic camera shots of highlight plays, unique camera angles of each batter at the plate and much more.

Read (GameZone)

Assassin’s Creed Short Film Announced

Ubisoft has announced that there will be an Assasin’s Creed short film. Although, this isn’t quite your traditional movie. The brand new studio, based in Montreal, plans to somehow use a different type of distribution format so that every person can edit the movie to their liking, so that it can be created with their own personality in mind.

“The gamers have been waiting for years to see these movies, and now we can turn them into films with heroes that they like.”

The team also hopes to release more films in the future using the same type of viewer manipulation. No other information as been announced so far, but this seems really cool. Assassin’s Creed is planned to release for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 consoles.

Read (Xboxic)

Mortal Kombat II Coming to PS3

Midway’s classic fighter, Mortal Kombat II, is heading to the Playstation 3 via the Playstation Store. The title will be fully downloadable to your hard drive, and will cost $4.99. It will be available for purchase sometime next month. There are still a few more Sony Online Entertainment games for the PS3 that have no release date, but that information will probably pop up sometime soon.

Read (Kotaku)

Capcom Licenses Unreal Engine

Japanese developer and publisher, Capcom, has announced that they have licensed the Unreal Engine 3. The current title in question is unknown, but we all know it will look graphically pleasing. Epic Games’ Unreal engine has recently been licensed by many top video game developers.

“More than just a graphics engine, UE3 will empower the development team to create the quality experience that gamers expect from a Capcom product,”

Some notable games using the engine include Gears of War, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas, and of course, Unreal Tournament 3. A game like Resident Evil 5 using the engine would definitely be interesting. Expect more announcements from Capcom soon.

Read (Next-Gen)

New Blu-Ray Player

Sony’s next-generation format for movies, Blu-Ray, is supposedly outselling Toshiba’s HD-DVD format by a 2:1 ratio. In order to continue doing so, Sony is releasing a cheaper Blu-Ray player, the BDP-S300. This piece of hardware will retail for the same price as a premium PS3 ($599), as opposed to the first Blu-Ray player, the BDP-S1, being $999. The newer player also provides CD playback.

The cheapest HD-DVD player to date would be the add-on for the Xbox 360, which is $199, about $499 after both the price of the console and add-on combined. Despite that, Sony is still seeing greater sales. The question at hand is why consumers wouldn’t purchase a Blu-Ray player that can do much more over a single player at the same price. Possibly it is only a marketing campaign.

Read (GamesIndustry)

Halo Theme on Guitar Hero II?

A rumor has been floating around about the popular video game theme of Halo, Mjolnir, to be released as a track on the upcoming Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360. If this is true, the song would be downloaded off the Marketplace seperately. The version on the game would be a different guitar rendition of the original score. Publisher RedOctane says that they do not comment on rumor or speculation, so it’s up to the fans on this one.

The Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II will also have 10 unreleased tracks. It was also said that the game would have more downloadable content than any other game on the marketplace.

Read (Official Xbox Magazine)

Next Page »

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