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Let’s Learn About American Otaku
The results of the Otaku USA readership poll were published in the most recent issue of Japanese game mag Famitsu. Ready to have a look? Are you? The survey polled 800 Americans on things like video games and anime and manga. Website Umaguruma.com translated the published article — hat tip for that! Favorite Game 10.…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 15, 2009 -
Not All Video Game Industry Sales Are Slipping
Video game sales are down! There is doom and gloom! Wailing and gnashing of teeth! The sky is falling! Unless, that is, you’re in the accessory or peripheral business. A comparison by Gamasutra, using NPD Group numbers, has shown that while software and hardware sales in August 2009 were down on 2008’s numbers, sales of…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 15, 2009 -
50+ PC Games For $5
We point out the odd Steam sale here and there, but Steam isn’t the only digital download store on the PC. There’s also Direct2Drive, and for the next five weeks, they’re having one hell of a sale. See, the site is turning five, and to celebrate, a whole range of titles have had their prices…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 15, 2009 -
What Is Microsoft Bringing To Tokyo Game Show?
Give or take, we’re about a week away from Tokyo Game Show. We’ll be there. Know who else will be there? People. Besides them. That’s right, Microsoft. The company has released a list of titles it will be showcasing at its booth at this year’s TGS. Some of the games will be playable demos, while…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 15, 2009 -
Jimmy Fallon, Jack Black Talk Brutal Legend, Workin’ Out
Jimmy Fallon was at the MTV Video Music Awards. So was Jack Black, in character, as Brutal Legend‘s Eddie Riggs. Rolling Stone caught up with them as they asked the obvious questions. Sadly, Rolling Stone’s video player isn’t embeddable, so you’ll have to hit the link below to watch it. It’s about, oh, a third…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 15, 2009 -
Bayonetta The Photo Book
Beautiful, famous women in Japan get photo books. Bayonetta heroine Bayonetta is a woman, beautiful and famous. And she’s getting her own photo book. The SEGA Store lists picture book BAYONETTA Witch of Vigrid. It features high quality pix of Bayonetta in action taken with a high quality camera. Priced at ¥2,100 (US$23), the book…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 15, 2009 -
Star Ocean 4 Sails Onto PS3
The tri-Ace developed, Square Enix published Star Ocean: The Last Hope was released on the Xbox 360 earlier this year. The title is not an Xbox 360 exclusive, it’s coming to the PlayStation 3. Dubbed Star Ocean: The Last Hope International, the game will be hitting the PS3 February 4, 2010 and priced at ¥8,190…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 15, 2009 -
Front Mission Evolved TGS Trailer Explodes
Square Enix has released the Tokyo Game Show trailer for multi-platform mecha game Front Mission Evolved. The game is set 50 years after Front Mission 5. While that title was developed by Square Enix, Front Mission Evolved is being developed by Double Helix Games, the studio responsible for Silent Hill: Homecoming. Release date for Front…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 15, 2009 -
The Only Gran Turismo PSP Clip You’ll Ever Need To See
PSP games are notorious for going easy on gameplay footage during trailers. Ditto for the Gran Turismo series. So it’s nice seeing Digital Foundry put together their own Gran Turismo PSP clip, which features nothing but real gameplay. And as you can see, film grain or not, when you see it in motion this looks…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 15, 2009 -
Pokemon Sells Nearly 1.5 Million In Two Days
DS titles Pokémon Soul Silver and Heart Gold went on sale in Japan on September 12. Pokémon DS games? Bet lots of people bought them. In they’re first two days on sale, Soul Silver and Heart Gold sold 1,408,980 copies of the game. The title sold out at locations across Japan, so the demand is…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 15, 2009 -
Play Console Games On Your PC [Update]
With my 360/Windows control pad and flood of “ports”, I play plenty of “console” games on my PC. But if Spawn Labs’ new HD-720 (catchy!) works as advertised, I could be playing many, many more. It’s a set-top box which you plug into your console, and then connect to your home’s wireless network. Once hooked…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 15, 2009 -
Capcom And Bungie To Collaborate In The Future?
Keiji Inafune, creator of Mega Man and designer of Dead Rising, showed up at the studio of Halo developer Bungie. Bungie, Inafune says, is an “amazing studio”, and he was curious how Bungie made its titles to see if Capcom could ever add some of that je-ne-sais-pas to Capcom games. “I wanted to come down…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 15, 2009 -
John Carmack Builds Another Spaceship, Could Win $1 Million
Armadillo Aerospace – the company founded and owned by id boss and Doom co-creator John Carmack – has a good chance of winning itself $1,000,000 after taking an early lead in NASA’s lunar lander challenge. Armadillo’s Scorpius craft is the first in a field of entrants to successfully complete the requirements laid out by NASA,…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 14, 2009 -
PlayStation 3 Firmware 3.01 Is Live
The new PS3 firmware, 3.01, just went live. It’s not a mandatory update, and we’re not sure what’s in the update or what it adds or what it fixes, but we are updating. Right now. As we speak. The previous 3.00 firmware update brought a host of new cosmetic changes. Users did report issues after…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 14, 2009 -
Idols Coming To Tokyo Game Show
We’re a week away from this year’s Tokyo Game Show. Get ready for video games, Japanese people and idol group Idoling. SEGA has roped in the Japanese pop group Idoling for television ads for DS title Puyo Puyo 7. The will be special stage shows on September 26 and September 27. For those not familiar…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 14, 2009 -
Xbox 360’s Processor Delivers Budget Supercomputing
A team of researchers pulled off some supercomputing on the cheap using a single Xbox 360’s graphical processing unit, instead of an array of processors operating in tandem, the BBC reports. The researchers, at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, think they’re the first to repurpose the processors as an inexpensive substitute for…
By Owen Good Published September 14, 2009 -
Activision Looking To A Future Where Consoles Aren’t Needed
Activision haven’t exactly had the rosiest of relationships with console manufacturers over the past few months. Which would be a problem for a console games manufacturer, were they not working on games that didn’t even need a console. Speaking at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco earlier today, Activision boss Bobby Kotick…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 14, 2009 -
AT&T tells Feds that Gaming is not “Broadband”
The games industry is unhappy that AT&T, in comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission, described real-time online video gaming as an “aspirational service” of broadband communications and not a core need. The dustup comes as the FCC is seeking to define the term “broadband,” which isn’t just an academic debate. The definition the FCC…
By Owen Good Published September 14, 2009 -
Beatles: Rock Band Required Six Months of Lawyerin’
When you’re building something like The Beatles: Rock Band, the development cycle isn’t entirely on the coding end. A team of lawyers for the Beatles worked for six months on the likenesses, names and trademarks that went into the game. The Lawyer, a legal industry site, reports that the U.K. firm Eversheds handled a slew…
By Owen Good Published September 14, 2009
