Gamers’ charity Child’s Play has proudly raised over a million dollars, bringing smiles to thousands of children across continents. The program saw people donating money and gift items for children spending time in hospitals and is now in its fourth year.
The organizers of the program, creators of Penny Arcade, also announced results of the Child’s Play Charity Dinner which saw an appearance in a Penny Arcade strip go for $10,000; a voiceover line in Halo 3 for $9,000; signed Xbox 360 and Wii for $1,200 and $3,700, respectively; and more. Auction sales picked up over $200,000.
It seems ‘Ultimate’ just isn’t ‘Ultimate’ enough for Namco Bandai; the company has announced Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2, the sequel to the PS2 action fighter. Slated for release this Summer exclusively for the PS2, the game features over 30 playable characters, 16 unique stages and head-to-head style fighting for fans of the series.
In “NARUTO: Ultimate Ninja 2″ gamers can play through monumental events in the NARUTO storyline all while earning points toward upgrading their character’s strength, defense, agility, chakra and special abilities. Players can walk the path of NARUTO in the new all-new mode, Ultimate Road that will allow them to play through all of the pivotal events in the storyline, as well as unlock an original story, as more and more pieces of the NARUTO saga unfold. More than 60 exciting missions and seven challenging mini games will push potential ninja to their limit. Players can take the role of Naruto, Sasake, Kakashi, Rock Lee, Gara, Kiba and other favorites while taking on daunting tasks like battling the sand ninja and working their way through the Chunin exam, the test to move up in the ninja ranks. Ninja in training can perfect their skills in Practice mode then put their training to the test against a friend in the VS mode. With a vast amount of unlockable features such as playable characters, movies, music, collectible cards and more NARUTO fans will be busy for ages to come.
CVG reports that the February 2007 issue of PC Zone reveals the first details on Shivering Isles, the first expansion pack for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Snipping from the magazine article, the add-on will see 30-plus hours of gameplay, new quests, monsters, expanded free-form gameplay and a new land “that you can watch change according to your vital life-or-death decisions.”
Setting the scene, it’s explained that an ominous-looking gate has opened in Nibben Bay, the portal leading to a torn realm - the Shivering Isles - ruled by Sheogorath, the god of madness and dementia. Apparently, adventurers will meet the god and “plough through his trials”, but it’s additionally hinted that ultimately we may well be usurping the deity. A ETA of Q2 2007 has been given.
The issue, which is already available, has first screenshots and further information on the expansion.
Speaking to Game Politics, industry analyst Michael Pachter commented that Rockstar’s school life adventure game Bully won’t be receiving a sequel. The reason? Sluggish sales. The game sold over 800,000 units, and even though that’s quite a lot, it cost Take-Two close to $15 million in R&D, implying that they “did no better than to break even.”
If what he says becomes true (the “no sequel” part) then Bully would be the only Rockstar property not to get a follow up. Those who played Bully will tell you how great a game it is, including the critics. So, it’d seem stupid not to create a sequel. Let’s hope Take-Two sanctions a sequel for us fans and not just look at the money.
The studio behind the Lego Star Wars franchise has purchased Embryonic Studios for an undisclosed amount. Founded in 2005 by Nick Elms, formerly of Warthog and Digital Anvil, Embryonic worked on a number of titles including Star Trek: Invasion, Battlestar Galactica and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
“We are delighted to have completed the acquisition,” said Jon Burton of Traveller’s Tales. “Embryonic possess a very talented workforce that will help drive Traveller’s Tales on to further success.”
Microsoft has officially announced that specially marked boxes of Crackdown will include an invite to the Halo 3 multiplayer beta when it launches this Spring. Those who purchase the game will simply use the disc as a key to download the beta from Xbox Live Marketplace and join the action. Crackdown is released in the US on February 20, Europe on February 23 and Asia on February 22.
The company also announced another way to get in the beta: play Halo 2! Beginning February 1, 12.01 am PST, all gamers who participate in at least three hours of Halo 2 multiplayer via Xbox Live till February 3, 11.59 pm EST, and be among the first 13,333 to register at the Halo 3 website will get into the beta. This “Rule of Three” program is open to gamers across all regions.
Our favorite lunatic, Jack Thompson, had sent out a mass-email to various news outlets, stating his plans to protest the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. Apparently, he will take “various means to prohibit” the sale of the game to minors, but most surprisingly, he specifically targeted Bill Gates: “Please have your lawyers [Microsoft chairman Bill Gates', that is] contact me in order that such sales will be prevented.”
He also added: “I and others will endeavor to stop Microsoft from participating in any fashion, directly or indirectly, in such sales to minors.”
Grand Theft Auto IV is slated for release this October on both PS3 and Xbox 360.
From FiringSquad comes word that Timothy Gerritsen, CEO of Human Head Studios, has left the company. Through a phone interview, the site has learned that he had left before Thanksgiving and that his departure was ‘amicable’; he also said that his portion of the ownership of the company will be sold. The reason behind his departure can be attributed to the fact that the other owners wanted to take the company in a different direction than Gerritsen wanted. Human Head co-founder and President Paul MacArthur is now the company’s CEO.
The studio has released quite a few action titles, starting with Rune (2000), which was followed by Dead Man’s Hand (2004) and, most recently, Prey (2006). No new projects have been announced yet, though it is known that Prey 2 is in the pipeline.
Capcom has seen both success and failure in creating movie adaptations based on its franchises - Resident Evil has been its most successful franchise in the movie world, whereas the Street Fighter movie released back in 1994 is listed as one of IMDB’s worst 100 movies of all time. The company recently revealed that it has hired Germaine Gioia to serve as Senior VP Licensing in its Los Angeles office, with the aim that she will liaison with Hollywood to find properties that can be turned to movies.
Unknown to us gamers, Gioia was one of the major forces behind THQ. She worked at the-then small GBA software maker into a heavyweight in the industry through strong children’s licenses from Nickeolodeon. She also helped form partnerships between THQ and Nickelodeon that saw games like Tak and the Power of JuJu make it over to TV land and vice versa.
Now, she is working at Capcom to ensure that the company’s franchises turn into strong Hollywood properties, but unlike others, her focus is to involve the creators of the games themselves in the creation of the movies.
“For the near-term, I’m going to look at the game engines that Capcom has and the capabilities internally at the studios and presumably see if there are things we can take advantage of with properties that might do well with recognizable characters or story lines associated with existing game engines,” Gioia said. “But that always doesn’t work, so it might be a while before certain licensed properties that have been developed from the ground up are out in the marketplace.”
The publisher recently announced a new Street Fighter movie based on Chun-li, a skimpily clothed Asian fighter from the game. Capcom has also licensed Onimusha, Devil May Cry and other franchises for movie development.
We have all seen and read those ‘top 10 of 2006′ lists, but, besides editorial GOTY awards, which games have been the most important of 2006? USA Today has the answer: it lists the ten best-selling games of the past year, which unsurprisingly includes three EA titles. The best-selling title is obviously a sports game - Madden NFL 07 -followed by New Super Mario Bros. and Kingdom Hearts II. Rockstar sneaked in GTA: Liberty City Stories; Square Enix got in Final Fantasy XII and the aforementioned Disney-RPG; and Ubi got one of the coveted spots with GRAW. Hyped to be the ’system-seller’ for Xbox 360, Gears of War sold well enough in just two months to guarantee itself a spot as one of the best-selling games of 2006. There are already talks of a sequel, as well as a trilogy.
Here’s the full list, with platform and publisher:
- Madden NFL 07 (PS2) EA
- New Super Mario Bros. (DS) Nintendo
- Kingdom Hearts II (PS2) Square Enix
- Gears of War (Xbox 360) Microsoft
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (Xbox 360) Ubisoft
- Final Fantasy XII (PS2) Square Enix
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PS2) Rockstar
- NCAA Football 07 (PS2) EA
- Madden NFL 07 (Xbox 360) EA
- Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! (DS) Nintendo
There have been thousands of Final Fantasy parodies, but none as funny as Mark Leung’s College Saga. Up on Youtube, this epic 40 minute saga chronicles the hero’s efforts against vegetarians threatening to take over the world. Features repetitive NPCs, silly obstacles, turn-based combat and item acquiring, this is comedy at its finest. Below is episode one:
Hit the jump if you wanna catch the full saga.
(more…)
In disappointing news, word is out that Chris and Tim Stamper, two of Rare’s three founders have left the company to ‘pursue other opportunities’. This comes in the shadow of disappointing sales for Viva Pinata, which was received well by critics, though Microsoft has said that it has nothing to do with their departure.
Rare was originally a Nintendo-owned studio, producing one of Nintendo 64’s best games ever: Perfect Dark. The company was then bought by Microsoft for $375 million; since then it has released two titles for the original Xbox, as well as two Xbox 360 launch titles Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo.
Mark Betteridge, a 19-year veteran of the Rare team, and Gregg Mayles will succeed as Studio and Creative Director, respectively.
Variety reports that Xbox Live Video Marketplace is beating out Amazon’s Unbox service, even though it has presence in fewer homes throughout the US. Though there aren’t official sales figures, insiders have told the publication that Microsoft’s online video downloads service is working far better than that of the largest e-tailer on the planet, or any other online retailer for that matter. No exact reason can be found as to why, but the report states that Xbox 360’s direct connection to the TV, as well as tech-savvy users, contribute to the popularity of the service.
The Xbox Video Marketplace has also given flop movies a chance to prove themselves. “If you look at our sales charts, movies like ‘The Perfect Storm,’ ‘Unforgiven’ and ‘Swordfish’ are all doing disproportionately better than you would expect, and the only explanation is that they’re available in HD,” said Ross Honey, senior director for media in Microsoft’s content and partner strategy group. In fact, Poseidon, which took $160 million to produce, but bombed badly at the US box office, is quite popular on the online video service.
The report also states that Microsoft is in talks with various studios to get more content on the online marketplace, though no timeframe was given as to when new content can be expected.
Those wacky analysts are at it again: Dublin-based marketer “Research & Markets” (very imaginative name) says that the PS3 will reign supreme and win the console war by 2010. This comes through their report on “The Emergence of Next Generation Gaming” which states that the PS3 will have an install base of around 75 million globally by 2010, but it not “expected to dominate as much as its predecessor, the PS2, due to late launch issues in the PAL region and the early lead of Microsoft’s Xbox 360.”
As Spong rightfully points out, that’d mean Sony would have to sell 25 million units a year, with 2 million units a month. They also point out that the PS2 took four years to hit 75 million, so take this analyst report with buckets of salt.
The PS2 is undoubtedly the longest running, and most successful, console in the history of gaming. It has sold over a 100 million units worldwide and is still in production, whereas its competitors are long dead. It’s also poised to beat its younger, more powerful brother - the PS3 - this year.
According to research by rating agency Standard & Poor’s, Sony is expected to sell 11 million PS2s against just 6 million PS3s this year. The company is also likely to ship another 11 million PS2s versus 7 million PS3s in the coming year.
The dominance of the PS2 cannot be questioned, but is it really going to kick the PS3s ass? Well, publishers and developers are focusing on next-gen consoles now, but a lot of software companies are still going to be developing for this aging console, as well as EA who still plans on releasing quite a few games on the PS2, alongside its next-gen brethren.
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