Archive for September, 2007:
Rockstar Developer Dies
In sad news, Rockstar developer Joseph Howell, 35, has died. Rest in peace.
No cause of death is mentioned anywhere, but this obituary in the NY Daily News hints that it may have been suicide. Howell was a successful games designer at the (in)famous studio, being credited for some of its high-profile titles including GTA: San Andreas, Manhunt, GTA 3, GTA Vice City, Midnight Club 2 and more.
Besides being a developer, he is described as being a “staunch defender of Civil Rights and Liberties especially for the underprivileged,” according to his obituary.
Tomb Raider, Hitman Sequels in the Works
From the no-shit-Sherlock department comes word that entries in the Tomb Raider and Hitman are in the works. SCi Entertainment revealed this during its fiscal year-end results where they also mentioned that sequels to Just Cause and Battlestations: Midway are also in development.
However, the company itself does not have much good news. It has posted lower revenues than it had the year before. This is being attributed to steep price cuts on PS2 games, as well as the PS3.
WoW Hits 800,000 Concurrent Users in China
Chinese gamers sure love World of Warcraft! After the delayed release of The Burning Crusade’s launch in the country, the popular MMORPG has gotten even more popular, having regained its momentum. Its Chinese operator The9 has added nine new servers groups to handle the sudden influx of users. Estimates indicate that the peak concurrent users may have exceeded 800,000. Wow, indeed!
?People in my guild who I haven?t seen in ages are all coming back for the expansion pack?, says Zou Jun a WoW gamer from Nanjing.
Meanwhile, other MMO developers wonder how to make their games this popular.
Codemasters Standing by Jericho in Face of German Ban
Foll
owing word that the USK, Germany’s ratings board, has denied to rate Clive Barker’s Jericho, effectively banning it in the country, Codemasters has officially told that they are standing by their game and not modifying any of its content to get USK’s classification.
“Following a review by the USK ratings board, which declined to give an official rating, Codemasters has decided not to change the artistic vision of the renowned author and filmmaker Clive Barker though cuts and extensive changes,” announced the publisher through a press note. “[We] respect Mr Barker?s creative ideas, despite the German distribution and marketing consequences for the title.”
The company will not be able to sell or advertise the game in the country for PS3 and Xbox 360. However, they will still be selling the unrated PC version starting October 26 when it’s released for “adult gamers and Clive Barker fans.”
Thompson’s Son Buys Halo 3
It seems Jack Thompson wasn’t happy with sending his son out to buy Bioshock. GP reports that he recently sent his 15-year old son out to buy Halo 3 from Target.
Miami attorney and anti-violent video game activist today did a successful sting on Target Corporation. His fifteen-year-old son, on the first try, was able to buy the ?Mature-rated? Halo 3 without producing any age ID at the Dadeland Station Target.
Isn’t having his son buy these games defeating his purpose? His logic confuses me.
Halo 3 Takes Toll on Workforce
It is obviously no surprise that gamers would take Halo Day as a national holiday of sorts. Washington Post has an article up about gamers skipping work just to play Halo 3, which has raked up millions in sales and surpassed its predecessors.
Apparently, gamers who play Halo aren’t loud-mouthed teenagers (which multiplayer matches indicate) but also consist of “government tech worker”, “government economic analyst” and more serious people. Halo has also had an effect on several companies, including investment advisory and software consulting firms who have pre-ordered the game so that its employees can play the title within the offices.
The article has more, though registration is required for those interested.
Quake Wars Patch 1.1 Released
Today is the official release date for Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, (U.S. gets the game a few days later), and it has already received the first patch, 1.1. It fixes a number of issues, such as Linux Client compatibility, graphics improvements and tweaks, and a number of other updates. The patch is available through the in-game auto-updater. Full change list after the break. More »
Rumor: Cheaper PS3 on the way
While the PS3 has already been declared a failure by some, Sony hasn’t let it put a damper on the system because a recent FCC filing has revealed yet another PS3 model is on the way. While most is kept under wraps, it is revealed to us that the new model will feature only 2 USB ports as compared to 4 on the current model which hints at a cheaper version.
Even with price cuts and titles like Metal Gear Solid 4 on the way will this be enough to get Sony back in the ranks with Nintendo and Microsoft?
Halo 3 News Roundup
Halo 3 is dominating gaming news these days, here’s a roundup of the most popular Halo 3 news featured on DigitalBattle during the past few days.
Halo 3 Review Roundup
Halo 3 Released
Master Chief Not Welcome In Sidney
Exclusive Halo 3 Content For Xbox Live Gold Members
Microsoft Replacing Damaged Halo 3 Discs
Security Concerns With London Halo 3 Launch
Halo 3 Nets $170m In First Day Sales
One Million Halo 3 Players Online
Remastered Halo Cinematics Unimpressive
Halo 3 To “Finish The Fight” against Sony?
Halo 3 Street Date Broken
Famitsu Reviews Halo 3
No UT3 Cross Platform Play
Epic frontman Mark Rein spoke to some Unreal community members via IRC, talking about various aspects of the game, including cross platform play between the PC and PS3 versions. Sadly, he revealed that it was simply too complicated getting PC and PS3 versions to play together. Rein said:
The biggest challenge in doing cross platform play is synchronizing the builds such that the build on the PC is 100% compatible with the build on the PS3.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) when you [develop] games on console you have a lengthy certification process to go through each time you release anything new.
It’s as simple as that. One can’t update console games as easily as releasing a PC patch, so the challenge is very clear. On the other hand, as Rein mentions, console patches are generally of better quality because of the very same certification process. There is no release date set for UT3, only that the “target” is November. Xbox 360 will be getting the game early next year.
HL2 Orange Box Gone Gold
Yep, you read it right, Half Life 2: The Orange Box has gone gold. Gold. Off to the production lines. For real. The “box” has been delayed several times, for almost a year, but none of that matters now, as the game has gone gold. Did I mention it went gold?
The Oragne Box includes Half Life 2, HL2: Episode 1, HL2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. It will be released on October 9 in the U.S., and 10 days later in Europe.
Another Warhammer 40k Dawn of War Expansion
The critically acclaimed and very popular RTS Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War is getting a third expansion pack. The new expansion, called “Soulstorm”, is developed by the usual folks at Relic Entertainment with aid from Iron Lore Entertainment (the crew behind Titan Quest). As expected, it’ll include two new expansions, new missions and multiplayer maps and best of all, it’s a standalone expansion, so you’re not required to have the original to play. The original Dawn of war was released back in 2004, the first expansion, Winter Assault, in 2005, and another expansion, Dark Crusade in 2006. The third expansion, Soulstorm, will be released sometime in 2008.
PSP Slim Sells Over 300,000 In Japan
While the “old” PSP has been continuously owned by the DS worldwide, the new slim PSP might turn things around. Last week it outsold the DS in Japan for the first time, and now Famitsu reports that sales have surpassed 300,000 units since launch two weeks ago. The PSP Slim sold 250,000 standalone units, plus 75,000 LE versions, bundled with Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. We’ll have to wait and see if this is only because of the new Final Fantasy game, or if the increased sales will continue. As with everywhere else, Japan awaits a huge holiday season, so things are certainly looking more interesting in the DS vs. PSP war.
One Million Halo 3 Players Online
One solid proof that Halo 3 is flying off the shelves is the massive activity on Xbox Live. More accurately, 1.2 million gamers (unique gamers, that is) have logged on the multiplayer servers, according to none other than Bungie. In addition, Bungie’s data shows that over 4.5 million online matches have been played and over 400 million enemies have been killed in the campaign. Expect the number to increase sharply over the upcoming weekend, and throughout the entire holiday season.
Halo 3 Nets $170m In First Day Sales
Who would gave guessed that Halo 3 would break records by earning $170 million in one day? With all the millions Microsoft spent marketing the game for the past few months, creating hype (or rather, hysteria), it comes as no surprise, really. Microsoft just announced that the $170 million were grossed only in the U.S., where Spider-man 3 previously held the record. Worldwide, the game has probably grossed well over $200 million.
Although they didn’t provide any data to back up their claim, Microsoft is expected to release more accurate numbers in the next few days, if not, we can always look forward to the NPD numbers early next month.