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Halo’s Xbox Live Section Opens In November
Microsoft announced today that Halo Waypoint – a section of Xbox Live devoted entirely to all things Halo – will be out in the first week of November. “Nov 5”, says the project’s official Twitter page. “Mark it on your calendar”. We won’t, thanks. We are, however, curious to see how the whole thing works,…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 11, 2009 -
UncategorizedSony Cuts Nigeria Line From PS3 Slim Ad
Sony’s original PS3 Slim price drop ad may have pleased gamers, but it pissed off the entire nation of Nigeria. As we reported, the ad was pulled, and now a reworked version has hit the airwaves. In the original ad, Sony’s fictional director of rumor confirmation stated, “You can’t believe everything you read on the…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 11, 2009 - Uncategorized
Holy Two Million Units Sold, Batman
While the August NPD numbers show Batman: Arkham Asylum had sold 593,000 copies, those numbers don’t include the two weeks of September we’ve had since then. Factor those in and the game’s sold almost two million copies. The figure was disclosed as part of an LA Times report on some restructuring going on at DC…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 11, 2009 - Uncategorized
Watch Short Bits Of The Brand New Final Fantasy XIII Trailer
At the Final Fantasy XIII Premiere Party, Square Enix showed the new FFXIII Tokyo Game Show trailer. Square Enix would not allow anyone to film the trailer, so we had to describe it. Yet, here it is on Japanese morning television. There are a few short scenes of Lightning, Hope, Snow and Serah. There’s gameplay…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 11, 2009 - Uncategorized
Sony: PS3 Sales Up 300%
If you feel you can stomach more sales “percentages” in lieu of sales “figures”, then Sony’s boast today of a 300% increase in PS3 sales is something you could maybe look into. “Our top retailers have reported a 300% lift in PS3 hardware sales and an increase of 140% in total hardware revenue across the…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
Brand New Final Fantasy XIII Screens Show Optima Change
Yes, we’re already seen blurry magazine scans of character Sazh Katzroy’s afro-headed son Dahj. Here are non-blurry screens, plus a look at “Optima Change”. Optima Change lets players assign new roles to the AI characters in their party during battle — basically, you can change their abilities. According to Famitsu.com, it is possible to swap…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
NFL Hitched to the Oregon Trail
To salute the NFL’s opening night, Slate cooked up this video: The NFL Hits the Oregon Trail. Mike Vick goes hunting, Donté Stallworth crashes the wagon, and of course, everyone gets dysentery, the end. The NFL Hits the Oregon Trail [Slate via 100% Injury Rate on FanIQ]
By Owen Good Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
Crackdown 2 Has Helicopters, Zombie Monsters
That Crackdown 2-themed issue of Game Informer we told you about yesterday is already finding its way into people’s hands, meaning we’re now armed with the knowledge that Pacific City ain’t what it used to be. While the basic layout of the city remains the same as that of the first game, things this time…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
Gabe Newell Boycotting L4D Modder’s Campaign [Update]
A 19-year-old Aussie emailed the Valve boss to complain that he wasn’t flown in for the boycott-bustin’ playtest of Left 4 Dead 2. Gabe Newell’s reaction, allegedly (and in fun), was to announce a boycott of his own. The modder, Joe of Joe’s Modding Menagerie, is putting together a campaign for Left 4 Dead (pictured,…
By Owen Good Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
PlayStation Eye Tech Demo Can Make Anyone A Lazy Eyed Anime Girl
Sony has been futzing about with head-tracking technology via its PlayStation Eye peripheral for a long time, showing off an early version of the camera trickery at last year’s Game Developers Conference. How far they’ve come! Now, as demonstrated at this year’s CEDEC 09 conference in Japan, the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Eye can interpret…
By Michael McWhertor Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
Celebrate Scribblenauts Launch At Nintendo World Store
This weekend the New York City’s Nintendo World Store will host a launch party for DS title Scribblenauts, letting gamers pick the title up days before it hits stores. The event kicks off at 11 a.m. this Sunday and will include purchasable copies of the game, due to hit stores on Sept. 15 for sale.…
By Brian Crecente Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
An Inconvenient Truth — ’09 Holiday Releases are Endangered
Overfished waters? Melting polar ice? No, the hidden shame of our ecosystem is the virtual disappearance of 2009 holiday releases, Noted ecologists LoadingReadyRun have put together this documentary on the plight of a species no one’s talking about. Let’s not spoil any of the punchlines, so, enjoy this and pay attention as you do so.…
By Owen Good Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
Torture In Video Games
At PAX, I had the good fortune to catch Bethesda’s Brink demo. While there was a lot of cool stuff in the game worth blogging about, what stuck with me was the use of torture in the game. Of course, the game doesn’t call it torture. I think the term they use is “extreme interrogation…
By AJ Glasser Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
Notebook Dump: Halo Bible Height, Cave Story And Xbox Champagne
There comes a time in the week to reflect on what got into my reporter’s notebook but didn’t turn into Kotaku blog posts. Shall we? I haven’t been able to write one of these Notebook Dumps in a couple of weeks and am now giving you one a day early. Tomorrow is a rest day…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
Star Trek D-A-C Still Coming To PSN, PC (Promise!)
PlayStation 3 owners and PC gamers jealous of the Xbox Live Arcade timed exclusivity of Star Trek D-A-C will be able to put that pain and suffering behind them soon. And by “soon,” publisher Paramount Digital Entertainment means November. Not quite the “late summer 2009” we were promised earlier this year, but at least it’s…
By Michael McWhertor Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
Come As You Are
To: Bash From: Crecente Re: Presents, I Love Presents, Getting Presents, Giving Presents, Presents Did you see this beef between Activision and Courtney Love? She seems pretty ticked. Even more ticked than fans of Cobain’s music. What you missed: Activision: Courtney Love Signed Cobain Contract for Guitar Hero 5 Adult Films Push For Presence on…
By Brian Crecente Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
NPD Instant Analysis: Things You Should Note
Do not ignore the downloadables like Shadow Complex. Do not gloat about Activision’s rare misfortune. And do find a hope for Scribblenauts. Here’s some of my monthly instant analysis for all those NPD August hardware and software sales figures McWhertor just posted. Study them and then consider the following as viable talking points when you’re…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
Madden Tops Charts Again, But Sales Plummet On PS2, Wii
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello had a right to be discouraged by sales of the latest Madden NFL football game from EA Sports. While it managed to be August’s bestselling game in the U.S., sales were definitely down. Madden NFL 10 leads the NPD Group‘s top ten with 928,000 units sold on the Xbox 360.…
By Michael McWhertor Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
NPD: PS3 Sales Gain Ground On Price Drop, Nintendo DS Still Tops
August video game hardware sales were, like most of 2009, down from the previous year. But at least PlayStation 3 sales were up considerably from the month prior, selling almost twice the amount thanks to a mid-month price drop. According to the NPD Group, Sony sold 210,000 PlayStation 3s in the U.S. last month. With…
By Michael McWhertor Published September 10, 2009 - Uncategorized
PlayStation Store Update: Turtles & Takei
Ever since Sony got serious about adding PSone Classics to the North American PlayStation Store, the weekly updates to the service have been pretty solid. With Silent Hill and Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain hitting today, we’re issuing another “solid.” There’s a lot to play with this week, including the remake TMNT: Turtles in Time…
By Michael McWhertor Published September 10, 2009