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Kenka Bancho, The Badass Gallery of Tough Guy Faces
This March, fighting game Kenka Bancho is coming to the silver screen in Japan with Kenka Bancho ~ Zenkoku Seiha (Nationwide Domination). It’s bringing hard-nosed facial posturing with it! The cute is provided by idols Erika Yazawa and Mai Satoda. Sneers by the dudes. Thanks, dudes! 里田まい『喧嘩番長 劇場版〜全国制覇』で「夢が叶った」 [Famitsu]
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
The Big Three All See Revenues Drop in 2009
Revenues were down for most video game companies in 2009, and the big three platform holders were no exception. Pretty clear, but if you need it spelled out a little clearer, nice graphs tend to do the trick. Put together by NPD fetishist Matt Matthews over at Gamasutra, it shows the decline in revenue all…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
Why Is Square Enix Raising Cash?
Square Enix, the company behind Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, announced a ¥35 billion ($386 million) zero-coupon convertible bond. As Hiroshi Kamide at KBC Securities Japan points out, “convertible” means that these bonds can be changed to shares at some point before they mature. While Square Enix has around ¥80 billion in on hand cash,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
EA Exec & Former EA Exec: Handbags At Twenty Paces
This is fun. A former EA executive last week went to town on the publisher’s business strategy and that of its boss, John Riccitiello. Rather than let the comments wash under the bridge, however, EA today responded. With snark. The former EA man in question is Mitch Lasky, who sold a mobile business to EA…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
A Week In Comments
Unpaid Internet Bill Leads to Game-Blamed Stabbing Comment by: Segador Nominated by: (Starman) #number258 I watched a friend go from a quality individual to a fat, pasty, loser in 12 months thanks to his addiction to WoW. He lost his very good IT consulting job because he would stay up past 3am, then crash, not…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
Blizzard Worth $7 Million In 1995, $7 Billion In 2007
What a difference a decade makes. Speaking with Game Informer magazine, Activision boss Bobby Kotick has spoken of the massive disparity between how much Blizzard was worth in 1995 compared to the price Kotick paid in 2007. In ’95, the Warcraft creators were purchased by Davidson & Associates. For a sum that, in 1995, Kotick…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
Rock Band Network Launching Tomorrow
MTV’s Rock Band Network, an ambitious program aimed at letting “anyone” upload a song to the game’s store, will be launching tomorrow, according to the Wall Street Journal. In a piece on MTV’s plans for the store, the WSJ piece opens with “MTV Games is hoping to goose sales of its flagging “Rock Band” series…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 19, 2010 - Uncategorized
Kotaku Off-Topic: Every Kiss Begins with Uranus
You might think you got your girl a nice sized rock when you popped the question, some gas giant at the edge of the solar system just blew the curve for the rest of us guys. Plenty of chatter today about games. Too much, even. Let’s take a break with some officially sanctioned off-topic discussion.…
By Owen Good Published January 18, 2010 -
UncategorizedTrendy Mario Bros.
Half of this seems about as hamfistedly hip as a Mentos ad, but a team of design students at a Milan university identified five top global trends – guerrilla gardening, couch-surfing, carpooling – and used Mario to illustrate them. I guess by planting trees on the sly you bring a Fiat dealership to town, turn…
By Owen Good Published January 18, 2010 - Uncategorized
Visit Age Of Conan: Rise Of The Godslayer’s Lovely Chosain Province
New screens for Funcom’s Age of Conan show off the distinctive Asian flair of the Chosain Province, the new area being introduced in the Rise of the Godslayer expansion pack. Going by the screens, the Chosain Province looks to be a bit more vibrant than any of the locations I visited during my time with…
By Mike Fahey Published January 18, 2010 - Uncategorized
U.S. Army Trains with “SimCity Bagdad”
Army officers are practicing counterinsurgency strategies for Iraq with using a video game plainly inspired by SimCity. In fact, a frustrated officer unprepared for the fall of Baghdad asked for such a thing by name years ago. UrbanSim is the name of the training program, profiled in an item in the current issue of The…
By Owen Good Published January 18, 2010 - Uncategorized
Sherlock Holmes Tracks Jack The Ripper To U.S. Xbox 360
JoWooD Entertainment and Dreamcatcher pit the greatest fictional detective of all time against one of the most notorious real-life serial killers in Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper, coming in March to the North American Xbox 360. Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper is the fifth in a series of Holmes adventure titles developed by…
By Mike Fahey Published January 18, 2010 - Uncategorized
Unpaid Internet Bill Leads to Game-Blamed Stabbing
Game-blame news from Romania: a 15-year-old boy said to be “dependent” on video games stabbed to death his adoptive mother, after she refused to pay the Internet bill in hopes the disconnection would put an end to his Counter-Strike addiction. In the narrative of the attack the boy, Ionut Savin (pictured), stabbed his mother (on…
By Owen Good Published January 18, 2010 - Uncategorized
Night Flyer
To: Ash From: Crecente Technically it’s not night, but I am flying to Los Angeles for the day. I’ll be returning tomorrow afternoon. I may have some hours to kill tonight and tomorrow afternoon any suggestions on what I should do? What you missed: Video Games Survive Recession, But At What Cost? The Best Games…
By Brian Crecente Published January 18, 2010 - Uncategorized
The Long Hello: Games ‘Arrive’ as a Threat to Network TV
Anyone old enough to remember RF switchers knows that video games and network television have long competed for the same eyeballs on the same TV set. Only recently does it feel like games are getting credit – or blame, rather – for contributing to the decline of prime time programming. This discussion has reconstituted itself…
By Owen Good Published January 18, 2010 - Uncategorized
Rest In Peace, Taco Bell Guy
After countless marathon gaming sessions interrupted only by alternating runs to “the border” for cheap Mexican food and the bathroom, I can’t let the passing of Taco Bell founder Glen W. Bell Jr. go unnoticed by our readers. Many gamers, myself included, consider tacos to be the ultimate food. Indeed, if it weren’t for the…
By Mike Fahey Published January 18, 2010 - Reviews
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth Micro-Review: Something M2 Whipped Up
Konami goes back to Castlevania’s roots with Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, as the series joins Gradius and Contra to get the Konami ReBirth treatment. Once again, developer M2 takes a long, hard look at a classic Konami franchise and produces a retro-styled rehash. This time around the game is Castlevania: The Adventure, the 1989 Game…
By Mike Fahey Published January 18, 2010 - Uncategorized
Nintendo Spot Makes UK Most Irritating Ad List, But Isn’t That Annoying
A Nintendo DS ad took the number nine spot among the most irritating TV ads aired in the UK last year, as determined by England’s Marketing magazine. The ad doesn’t seem that annoying to me, but then I have no attachment to its stars, British comedians Ant and Dec. Now, the number one ad is…
By Stephen Totilo Published January 18, 2010 - Uncategorized
Heavy Rain’s ESRB Rating Spoils Everything
The ESRB has given Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain an M for Mature rating, explaining the game’s drug use, violence, horror, and sexual situations in ridiculous detail. Needless to say, spoilers ahead. Here’s the obligatory paragraph I put in between the lead and the actual rating listing, in order to make sure no one accidentally reads…
By Mike Fahey Published January 18, 2010 - Uncategorized
Report: ESPN Coming To Xbox 360?
The New York Times reports that ESPN and Microsoft are in talks to bring a subscription-based service to Xbox Live that would stream live sporting events through the Xbox 360, no cable TV connection needed. The paper notes that none of this is official, sourcing anonymous “people close to the talks”: Microsoft has held in-depth…
By Stephen Totilo Published January 18, 2010