Archive for July, 2008:
Battlefield Heroes Delayed
EA today announced that upcoming free-to-play shooter Battlefield Heroes has been delayed and is now expected to arrive late this year.
In development at EA DICE, the game was originally expected to launch this Summer.
“We decided to increase its focus on some of the social networking features,” said company CEO Riccitiello, stressing that the studio hopes to incorporate beta tester feedback and implement new features. “The last thing we want to do is jab it in the marketplace.”
Developer: Brutal Legend is Fine
Following word that freshly-formed publisher Activision Blizzard will not be picking up every Vivendi title as part of its merger, heavy metal action title Brutal Legend was seen as a possible casualty.
However, fans can now breathe easily, as an update to the Double Fine Action blog is assuring fans that the game has not been killed. “Brutal Legend is fine,” is all that is written on the blog, offering no further details.
Brutal Legend stars Jack Black as a heavy metal roadie who enters a fantasy realm and must fight using metal-themed weapons and enemies. It is being headed by Tim Schafer, the man behind Psychonauts, and is in development for PS3 and Xbox 360.
EA to Sell Crysis Computers
Shacknews reports that EA is planning to sell computers that will be branded and marketed as machines capable of playing Crysis, which has become the butt of many gamers jokes due to the game being highly demanding on the computer.
The computers will be released alongside the upcoming stand-alone expansion Crysis Warhead and will come in several configurations, though details weren’t provided.
Crysis Warhead is set for release this September.
EA Brings in Over $90 Million Through Digital Sales
EA raked in over $90 million in direct digital sales in the first quarter of its 2008 fiscal year, the company announced at its investor call today.
The figure includes revenue collected through the company’s EA Store, which offers direct downloads of its catalog of PC games and more. It also includes games and other content on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.
Additionally, the company also offers music via the EA Trax division, offering downloads of soundtracks from the Need for Speed series, among others.
EA Sports Reappearing on PC Next Year
Reporting from the same investor conference call, EA Sports president Peter Moore offered details on the company’s attempts to reinvigorate its PC sports title offerings.
“We are retooling these titles [on the PC] to take advantage of the online connectivity in a bigger and more meaningful way,” he said, noting that major franchises will reappear on PC starting next year.
Moore also said that the company is experimenting with subscription programs to reward players, but offered no details on the subject.
As for the performance of EA Sports, the company revealed that pre-order numbers for sports games are down compared to last year. However, both Moore and EA CEO John Riccitiello stressed that the company is not worried as sales have remained consistent.
PC, PS3 Sales Bring in Big Money for EA
While PC and PS3 are said to be the least popular platforms among gamers these days, these are the platforms which EA is selling most on. The company announced that PC and PS3 sales contributed the most to its revenue, with the latter bringing in about $139 million. PC software followed at $86 million, with Xbox 360 coming in at $81 million for the quarter ending June 30, 2008.
The company cited Battlefield: Bad Company and Mass Effect as examples of well-received games released in the last quarter.
“We are now seeing the early returns of the change agenda we started last year,” said EA CEO John Riccitiello. “Innovation and quality are rising, our games are more accessible and fun, and we have more new titles than at any time in our history.”
Tiberium Delayed
EA today announced in a conference call to investors that squad-based shooter Tiberium has been delayed.
The first-person shooter is set in the familiar C&C world, having gamers go at it directly in the battlefield. It was originally pinned for a late 2008 release, but the delay puts it in EA’s 2010 fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010.
No reasons for the delay were given. It is in development for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
Lionhead Hopes to Make Three More Fable Games
With Fable 2 due out this October, Lionhead lead designer Peter Molyneaux revealed that the company plans on creating three more titles in the action-RPG series.
“We’ve got plans for Fable 3, 4, and 5,” he told GameTrailers. “It’s a big story arc, and you can see—if you play Fable 2, you can recognize things from Fable 1, so that’s pretty exciting.”
When asked about the studio’s other unannounced project,he declined to comment, but noted that it is the result of an “experiment that went incredibly well.”
Kojima: "New Snake for New Era"
Hideo Kojima’s interview with Variety isn’t exactly full of information on the director’s upcoming games, but he does say some interesting things.
Talking about Snake, he noted that the “final story of Snake equals closure for these fans… Therefore, the Snake that has existed over the past 10 years could have only existed during this time.”
He adds that he doesn’t know if he will be working on a new Solid Snake game anymore, but did say that “if there ever were to be a new Snake [game], he will be a Snake for a new era.” Whatever that means.
Why PA Adventures Took Such a Long Time to Come to PSN
As much as we would like to speculate just how much the guys at Penny Arcade hate the PS3, it wasn’t the reason why Penny Arcade Adventures was late to the PlayStation Network. It was technology, who is to blame.
Vlad Ceraldi, president and CEO of Hothead Games, revealed that they had to redo the entire engine of the game for the PS3 release.
“At that point we were fully committed to getting the game done as soon as we could,” Ceraldi said. “So we focused on PC, linux and what we had already announced, the Xbox.”
“As soon as we finished and got approved we moved those developers to the playstation and they started working on it for the Playstation Network,” he said. “Until we got it running the way we wanted to look, we weren’t going to announce anything.”
“As soon as we did a full play through of the game we announced.”
He notes that future episodes of the game will be released on all the aforementioned platforms within weeks of one another.
Unlock Too Human Player Classes
The Too Human demo has been doing the rounds on many Xbox 360 consoles, but many gamers were saddened to know that it had only one of five player classes from the full game.
Apparently, it does include the other four classes which are unlocked through a time release code. In fact, the second class – Berserker – became unlocked last Friday, and Commando, the third class, is expected to be unlocked August 12.
However, there is a way to unlock all classes in the game. This includes changing your console’s internal clock, and doing some controller mumbo jumbo. Be sure to check out this post for the nitty gritty details.
Wallace & Gromit Episodic Adventures Announced
Telltale Games has announced Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures as its second episodic adventure game featuring yet another awesome duo.
Adapted from the popular claymation series, the game will feature adventure gameplay similar to studio stalwarts Sam & Max and Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People.
No platforms or release dates were given. A PC release is expected, with a Wii version being a high possibility.
Sierra: Ghostbusters Not Canceled
Following word that Ghostbusters, Brutal Legend and many other Sierra games may be getting canceled, Sierra sent out word assuring fans that Ghostbusters is not in danger.
“It is not cancelled and will not be cancelled,” wrote a Sierra representative to Destructoid. He, however, would not give any further details.
Ghostbusters was in development at Terminal Reality for release on PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and DS this Fall.
Old Valve Games Could Come to XBLA, TF 2 Console Content Discussed
Valve’s marketing VP Doug Lombardi has expressed interest in releasing the studio’s back catalog on Xbox 360 as downloads. This includes shooters Half-Life and Counter-Strike; the studio is gearing up to release an enhanced edition of Portal on Xbox Live Arcade this Fall.
“We’ll certainly consider [bringing old games like Counter-Strike to XBLA],” he said. “If you look at what we’ve done on Steam, we try to make all our games available and we’re always reviewing the prices to keep them current. We’d love to do that, but this is our first step at doing that beyond the PC.”
He also talked about the free Team Fortress 2 content, disclosing that the company was still discussing the specifics of pricing and that once a lot of content has accumulated, they might release them on consoles.
Sony Sells 14M PS3s Worldwide, Posts Profit
According to the company’s latest financial documents, Sony Computer Entertainment has sold over 14.41 million units of the PS3 since its launch back in 2006.
The company sold 1.56 million PS3 consoles during the first quarter of its 2008 fiscal year, which ran from April 1 to June 30. By the end of its 2007 fiscal year, over 12.85 million PS3 units had been sold worldwide.
In comparison, the Wii has sold over 24 million units and the Xbox 360 19 million units worldwide. Both companies have yet to offer updated figures.
Sony’s games division posted a $51 million profit, stating that it was an “improvement” over the $237 million it lost in Q1 2007.