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This Is Where Sony’s Sales Are “Lower Than Expected”
As we’ve already heard tonight, Sony expect to make less money from their games division, thanks to lower than predicted sales. But just where are sales lower than expected? Let’s take a look. As you can see on the right, although software sales for the financial year will be down, Sony had already predicted lower…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 22, 2009 - Uncategorized
Cave Announces Gothic Lolita Shooter Sequel
Developer Cave’s horizontal shoot ’em up arcade title DeathSmiles is getting a sequel. It’s called, you’ll never guess, DeathSmiles 2. DeathSmiles 2 will be officially announced at AOU 2009 arcade amusement expo according to a recent Cave financial report. DeathSmiles 2 is slated to be on display. The game’s prequel first hit Japanese arcades in…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 22, 2009 - Uncategorized
Sony Will “Accelerate” Cost Saving Measures
We’ve already heard from Japan’s Nikkei Daily what Sony plans to do to cut loses. Now, let’s hear from Sony. Today Sony announced measures to improve profitability and drive growth — in short, start making money again. The three areas of focus according to the corporate giant: • Structurally reform Sony’s core electronics operations to…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 22, 2009 - Uncategorized
Rejected Dead Rising Titles (And Why No Photography In Dead Rising Wii)
In the latest Bionic Commando podcast, there’s a list of rejected Dead Rising Xbox 360 titles — plus a response why there’s no photography in the upcoming Wii version. First, Bionic Commando producer and former head of localization Ben Judd runs through the rejected titles for the original Dead Rising. Keep in mind, these were…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 22, 2009 - Uncategorized
Lost Planet Is A Big, Big Movie
The Resident Evil movies were B-grade stuff. The upcoming Street Fighter movie does not look promising. But Capcom are making more movies, and Lost Planet is one of them. And on that, they are not messing around. Capcom’s Toshihiro Tokumaru – the company’s character boss – has revealed that the budget for Avi Arad’s adaptation…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 22, 2009 - Uncategorized
Sony Revises Earnings Forecast, Game Revenue Down
Sony has announced a revision of its consolidated forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009. How’s the gaming division doing? While the company is forecasting ¥260 billion (US$2.95 billion) in operating income losses and ¥150 billion ($1.68 billion) in net income loses. According to Sony, “In the Game segment, operating income (loss) is…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 22, 2009 - Uncategorized
So, Did Any Gaming Types Make AskMen’s “Top 99 Women” List?
And by “Top 99”, they don’t mean the most eminent minds in their respective fields. So, with 2008’s list all done, did any games types make it? And by games types, we mean real people. Short answer is…yes. And sorry Nintendo fans, the Smile Machine didn’t make it. But these two did. Seems lonely men…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 22, 2009 - Uncategorized
Noby Noby Boy Delayed
This morning, we kinda hoped Noby Noby Boy would be out later this month. “Any day now”, even. Sadly, tonight we’ve got word that it won’t be out this month. It’ll be out next month. On February 19. And it’s February 19 for a worldwide, simultaneous release. So, around a month or so. Not too…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 22, 2009 - Uncategorized
Mario & Sonic Getting Winter Olympics Game
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was a big hit for SEGA. Big hits typically mean one thing: Sequels. According to this “exclusive” for Spanish Nintendo magazine Nintendo Acción hints at Mario and Sonic teaming up again for a winter games version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Here’s a translation from…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 22, 2009 - Uncategorized
First Physics, Now AI Is Being Moved To Your Graphics Card
Once was a time a graphics card handled just that. Graphics. But these days? Nvidia cards already handle physics processing, and by next year both Nvidia and ATI cards might handling AI as well. Speaking with Custom PC, representatives from both graphics card manufacturers say that “they’re working on GPGPU-accelerated AI in games”, and that…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 22, 2009 - Uncategorized
SEGA Is Counting Down To… A WiiWare Game
That SEGA countdown clock (oh how we hate countdown clocks!) may still be counting down, but the game’s already been revealed in this week’s Famitsu. The game is called Pole’s Big Adventure and being produced by Takao Miyoshi (Phantasy Star Universe). The game is a tongue-planted-firmly in cheek send-up of retro side-scrolling Famicom games. The…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 22, 2009 - Uncategorized
GameStop Pre-Owned Sales: The Numbers (And The Horror)
Of all their reprehensible practices, GameStop’s trade-in process may be the worst. Pity, then, that so few of you are avoiding it, as sales of pre-owned gear in 2008 were up, up, up. The company’s sales as a whole were up 22%. If you think that was driven by sales of new games over the…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
New PSP Title Offers Blasts of 30 Seconds Gameplay
Upcoming Yuusha 30 (Brave 30) has players save the world in four different game modes — 30 seconds at a time. Each mode has its own main character and gameplay mode: A brave warrior in a side-scrolling action game, princess in a shooting game, a demon king in a strategy game and a knight in…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
LittleBigPlanet Dojo: Valentines Day, Groundhog Day, Chinese NY, WipeOut (?)
The European community site for LittleBigPlanet has been updated to reveal what’s in store for the game’s DLC in the coming weeks. And what’s coming is mostly festive, partly in-house advertising. With Chinese New Years, Valentines Day and Groundhog Day all on the immediate horizon, the game will be celebrating with costumes for each holiday.…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Judas Priest Singer Trademarks Game Name
Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford (aka “Metal God”) has copyrighted the title of a video game: Metal God. Clever, huh. The trademark was filed on January 11 of this year and covers “computer games; video games; and game controllers for computer games.” Details about said games are scant, and it might be to protect “Metal…
By Brian Ashcraft Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
At Least Ready At Dawn Is Hiring!
If you’re one of the hundreds of video game developers finding yourself newly unemployed, you can always get a job at God of War: Chains of Olympus developer Ready At Dawn studios! The independent developer sounded the call for new talent today, looking for a few folks willing to relocate to sunny Santa Ana Irvine,…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Big Bang Mini Ships Today
Wikipedia lies! Big Bang Mini didn’t go out on January 6 – it’s out today for the Nintendo DS. Big Bang Mini is a shooter where the projectiles are all fireworks and you spend about as much time dodging in the lower screen as you do making pretty things happen in the upper screen. There…
By AJ Glasser Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
There Will Be No More Killzone 2 Delays
There’ll be no more delays for the oft-delayed Killzone 2. SCEA have just announced that the game has gone gold, meaning it’s finished, done, and ready for release. February 27 is the day it’ll be out on store shelves across the US, and to mark the occasion, Sony released this giant picture of the box…
By Luke Plunkett Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Metal Gear Solid 4 Sneaks Past 1 Million Sold Stateside
Konami’s PlayStation 3 exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has crossed the million mark in the U.S., according to NPD sales data. Good news for Snake, but how about LittleBigPlanet‘s Sackboy? According to Gamasutra’s report on 2008 sales, NPD puts LittleBigPlanet sales at well over 600,000 copies for the holidays. Not bad,…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 21, 2009 - Uncategorized
Mourn The Mature Wii Horror Game ‘Winter,’ You May Never Play it
Bemoaning the lack of mature, long-session games on the Wii? Then you might want to avoid looking at n-Space’s aborted Winter, a survival horror game for the Wii that will, quite possibly, never be released. IGN’s exclusive look at Winter, from the developer of the lukewarm Gamecube title Geist, is about as depressing for “core”…
By Michael McWhertor Published January 21, 2009