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Electronic Arts’ “Project Ten Dollar” Isn’t As Ominous As It Sounds
You may have noticed that in the past few months, EA has begun to provide content that’s free to purchasers of new games, but costs serious money for those buying second-hand. It’s no co-incidence. It’s called “Project Ten Dollar”. As part of the company’s attempts to combat the sale of pre-owned games – where profits…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Mass Effect 2’s Yamm Isn’t So Bad, Yo
BioWare role-playing game Mass Effect 2 has a survey for every planet and star in the game. Here’s a snippet about Yamm: With over 90 percent of its surface covered in oceans, Yamm is a habitable nitrogen-oxygen world, but its extremes can be quite hostile to sapient life. The heat from its extremely long days…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Developer: Not Many People Hook Their PSP Up To The PSN
Dylan Cuthbert, boss of PixelJunk creators Q Games, has told G4 that few gamers bother hooking their PSPs up to the PlayStation Store. “At this time, we have no plans for more stuff on the PSP”, he told the station’s blog. “I don’t think it’s piracy that has deflated sales, I just don’t think many…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Body Suits! Galoshes! Yamato!
Namco Bandai is bringing Yamato to pachislot machines with Uchu Senkan Yamato (trailer here). Dubbed Star Blazers in English, the sci-fi military anime originally ran in the mid-1970s in Japan. Pachislot is a fancier version of classic slot machines in which the player must stop the reels himself — this is called “skill stop”. While…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Hey, Little Sister
I’ve been playing BioShock 2 all week, and while I’m not enjoying it as much as Mike did, I did enjoy something 2K threw in with my copy: this Little Sister figure. Announced last year, the figure isn’t too big – she only stands about as tall as my index finger – but what she…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Children, You Must Stand On The Balance Board
This month, SEGA is bringing Super Monkey Ball, the series designed by Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi, to the Nintendo Wii Balance Board. But remember kids, YOU MUST STAND ON THE BOARD. The floor doesn’t detect motion. Well, yeah, anyway.
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Dead Space 2 (Probably) Won’t Be Scaring The PC
Over the past few years, EA has been quite kind to PC gamers, bringing the platform ports of games like Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space that other publishers wouldn’t have bothered with. Looks like that benevolent spell is over. During EA’s financial results reporting earlier in the week, Dead Space 2 was listed as a…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Mad Catz Is Making Mad Moneyz
Beside the economic downturn, third-party peripheral maker Mad Catz is doing just fine. The company posted net sales increase 19 percent to US$48.8 million during the third quarter of fiscal 2010. That’s the second-best quarter sales in the company’s history! Gross profits were also up 51 percent to $15.9 million. “These results reflect our success…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 10, 2010 -
UncategorizedLeft 4 Dead: The Movie Is A Dominican Republic Exclusive
Reader Miguel, from the Dominican Republic, was at work the other day when he was confronted by a man selling pirated movies. Normally, no big deal, Miguel says, happens all the time. But this time was special. “The guy told me it’s a cool movie”, he says, showing us the film’s cover, which is a…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
NSFW: Phantasy Star Portable 2 Character Designs Are “Detailed”
When a bunch of Phantasy Star Portable 2 panty shots appeared online, I thought, surely the game developers don’t design the characters down to their underwear. Turns out I was wrong. They do. The game’s “making of” type book shows original art of the characters and just how much planning goes into their design. Yes,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published February 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Forza 3 Sells 2 Million, Celebrates With New Track DLC
To celebrate the fact the game has now sold over two million copies, Microsoft and Turn 10 today announced a new range of downloadable content for Forza 3, focusing again on the world’s most iconic race track, the Nürburgring. What some may know as one of the greatest race courses in the world, others may…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Report: US Army Tried To Buy 360s For Training, Was Turned Down
Back in 2006, the US Army approached Microsoft with a lucrative contract offer: supply a ton of Xbox 360 consoles to the Army for the purposes of training soldiers. Microsoft’s answer? No, thank you. Roger Smith, the man responsible for buying the Army’s training gear, says that four years ago – despite the promise of…
By Luke Plunkett Published February 10, 2010 - Uncategorized
Kotaku Off Topic: At the End of the Day
Good evening, everyone. Thanks for joining us for this Kotaku Off Topic meeting, where we have some non-video game related synergizing and knowledge transfer to do. Let’s exercise best practices and think outside the box tonight. Tonight’s off topic strategic initiative, at the end of the day, is about facilitating and leveraging my distaste for…
By Michael McWhertor Published February 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Electronic Arts Scaling Back Third Party Distribution Plans
Top-flight titles like Rock Band and Left 4 Dead are distributed by Electronic Arts but the association doesn’t mean as much to the company’s bottom line. The publisher will be moving away from distributing third-party titles in the coming year. “While we have great relationships with our partners we are modeling a reduction in our…
By Owen Good Published February 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Mass Effect 2 Predicts Super Bowl Winner — in 2185
No word on how Madden is doing with its predictions 175 years from now, but Mass Effect 2, via Cerberus Daily News, says the New York Giants, with a Krogan quarterback (pictured), beat the Beijing Dragons in Super Bowl CCXIX. The news item, as reported by the Mass Effect Wiki: “Earth nations gathered around their…
By Owen Good Published February 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Final Fantasy XIII Gets An Xbox 360 Bundle In North America
Square Enix has been surprisingly mum on plans to bring a limited edition of Final Fantasy XIII to North America. Japan gets one, as does Europe. What do we get? At the very least, an Xbox 360 “special edition” bundle. According to a recent retail listing, Microsoft will be backing the role-playing game’s launch with…
By Michael McWhertor Published February 9, 2010 -
UncategorizedTecmo Recreates Super Bowl XLIV’s Clinching Play
Operation Sports’ Mr. NFL provides this recreation of the clinching play in Super Bowl XLIV – Tracy Porter’s pick-six interception of Peyton Manning in the fourth quarter – complete with CBS commentary. This is a modded Tecmo Super Bowl SNES ROM for 2009. You can see Reggie Wayne just telegraph that short in-route, and then…
By Owen Good Published February 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Dragon Quest, White Knight Chronicles Devs Level-5 Have More PS3, Wii Projects
Level-5, superdevelopers of Professor Layton, White Knight Chronicles, Dark Cloud and recent Dragon Quest games, already have plenty on their plate. But CEO Akihiro Hino says the Japanese role-playing game experts have unannounced PlayStation 3 and Wii on the way. According to a report from Japanese news outlet Dengeki by way of Andriasang, Hino said…
By Michael McWhertor Published February 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
EA Working Up Penalty for FIFA Quitters
Ragequitting has been a strong topic of discussion as EA Sports Canada looks to FIFA 11’s development, with the studio envisioning a system of reward and penalty for those who complete matches versus those who quit from a losing position. In an interview with Eurogamer, the 2010 FIFA World Cup producer Simon Humber said the…
By Owen Good Published February 9, 2010 - Uncategorized
Xbox Live Marketplace Schedule Dates Cheap Battlefield 1943, New Games On Demand
Your Xbox Live Arcade and Games on Demand budgeting for February can begin, thanks to Microsoft’s schedule for the month’s new digital releases and deals, including a more affordable version of Battlefield 1943 for Xbox Live Arcade. A handful of new games are also planned for “on demand” releases, including Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil…
By Michael McWhertor Published February 9, 2010