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September 07, 2011

AMD shifts blame for Dirt 3 code theft

Yesterday reports claimed that up to three million codes giving a free Steam copy of Dirt 3 had been taken from Codemasters' servers. The developer later got in touch to clarify that it was an AMD promotional site, and the graphics card manufacturer has confirmed that. In a statement, it said: "These activation keys were hosted on a thirdparty fulfilment agency website, www.AMD4u.com, and did not reside on AMD's website. Neither the AMD nor Codemasters servers were involved. We are working closely with Steam, Codemasters and our fulfilment agency to address the situation. AMD will continue to honour all valid game vouchers, however the current situation may result in a short delay before vouchers can be redeemed."
http://amd4u.com/dirt3promo/
AMD


Microsoft bans XBL Marketplace thieves

In a post on the Xbox Live support forums a Microsoft spokesperson confirms a new wave of bans affecting those who are deemed to have "illegitimately accessed" Marketplace content. "Our investigation reveals that this access was intentional and not accidental, constituting a blatant violation of the terms of use for the service," the post reads. "Please know that we are being very careful regarding these suspensions, and have clear evidence regarding each account issued a permanent suspension from the service."
http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_forums/xbox_support/f/41/t/62589.aspx
Microsoft


Report: Yoshi, Ace Attorney and more set for 3DS

Etrian Odyssey, God Eater and Baten Kaitos among raft of new titles to be announced next week, sources claim.

Nintendo is to unveil a host of new 3DS games at its pre-Tokyo Game Show event next week, according to reports.

Japanese blog Hachimaki, translated by Gematsu, claims that a side-scrolling game starring Yoshi, developed by Kirby's Epic Yarn studio Good-Feel, is on the way. A fifth Ace Attorney game featuring Miles Edgeworth will also be announced.

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The Sims Social passes 30 million users

EA took its time bringing The Sims to Facebook, a curious move given that it seems such a good fit for social gaming. However, it appears to have paid off, with the game amassing more than 30 million active users since its launch last month.
http://www.facebook.com/TheSimsSocial
Facebook


Steam Trading leaves beta

Valve launched Steam Trading last month, a beta phase in which users were only able to trade Steam Gifts and virtual Team Fortress 2 items. Over a million trades later, Steam Trading is now out of beta and officially live, with Portal 2 items now included and, in Spiral Knights, the first sign of thirdparty support.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/37056/Valves_Steam_Trading_Leaves_Beta_Adds_Portal_2_Support.php
Gamasutra


ESRB rates Devil May Cry HD remakes

A Devil May Cry HD Collection was first rumoured in June, when a Spanish retailer briefly listed it for PS3. Now America's ESRB has rated the first three games in the series - originally released on PlayStation 2 - for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. With the Tokyo Game Show kicking off next week it appears an official announcement may be imminent; we'll be spending the next week or so brushing up on our (hopeless) Royal Guard skills and hoping it's Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition, with its kinder difficulty level and save system, that's included rather than the punishing vanilla release.
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/search.jsp?title=devil+may+cry+
ESRB


Famitsu outs Monster Hunter 3G and 3DS peripheral

Expanded version of Wii's Tri playable at TGS and out this year; "Expansion Slide Pad" adds second circle pad, shoulder buttons.

Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has revealed that Capcom's Monster Hunter franchise is bound for 3DS, along with a peripheral that adds a second circle pad and set of shoulder buttons to the system.

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September 06, 2011

Ubisoft waives Driver’s online pass fee

Ubisoft is offering free access to Driver: San Francisco’s multiplayer modes to all players – and not just those who bought the game new at retail, as initially planned - after a printing error left users unable to redeem codes to unlock the title’s online component. Beginning with Driver, copies of the publisher's "popular core games" were supposed to ship with a valid one-time code required to access multiplayer features, while second-hand buyers would have to pay to get in on the action. A post on the Xbox support forums confirmed that printing errors had put paid to those plans, for now. "To solve this problem, Ubisoft has made the Uplay Passport offer free for all purchasers of Driver: San Francisco,” it read. Ubisoft says players can access all of the game’s online features at no extra cost by accessing the Uplay Passport option from Driver’s online multiplayer menu.
http://uplay.uk.ubi.com/passport/
Uplay


Halo 4 creative director exits Microsoft

Ryan Payton, one of Halo 4’s creative directors, has left Microsoft's 343 Industries to establish his own development studio, Camouflaj. Having previously served as a producer on Metal Gear Solid 4, Payton joined Microsoft to help create the new Halo trilogy, focusing largely on story and developing the fictional universe with franchise director Frank O'Connor. "I had a great run at Microsoft," Payton told Kotaku. "I don't regret one day of it. But after a few years, there came a point where I wasn't creatively excited about the project anymore. The Halo I wanted to build was fundamentally different and I don't think I had built enough credibility to see such a crazy endeavour through." He added: "I think time is the most valuable thing we have and I've decided that I'm not going to waste one more day working on something that doesn't speak to my values.” Payton is currently working on two unannounced titles of his own. "Some people say I'm crazy, but I want to make a game that one billion people play at once, and it's something that hits them harder than a great book or film.”
http://kotaku.com/5837475/
Kotaku


Namco Bandai steps ups support to new parents

The publisher is doing its bit to help reverse Japan's declining birth rate, offering parents having a third child a support bonus of ¥2 million (£16,120) and those expecting a first or second child ¥200,000 (£1,612). Both male and female employees are eligible for the ¥2 million bonus provided they take a week off in the first 56 days following the child's birth, and write a "child rearing report," though there are no such conditions attached to the ¥200,000 bonus. Namco Bandai will also open a child care centre in its Shinagawa office, and is looking at doing the same in its other offices across Japan.
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/09/06/namco_bandai_parent_support/
Andriasang


Deep Silver to fix Dead Island Steam error

The publisher had somehow uploaded a development build of its zombie FPS instead of the final version, leaving many North American players with a less-than-satisfactory experience. Deep Silver has since confirmed to Rock Paper Shotgun that the correct build will be released "during the day."
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/09/06/dead-island-proper-released-later-today
Rock Paper Shotgun


Official Xbox Magazine launches new website

Future Publishing stablemate Official Xbox Magazine has relaunched its website with a complete redesign today, ushering in a new focus on Xbox Live. The site is celebrating with a selection of new articles, including an interview with Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski as well as previews of Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3. Head over to the site by clicking the source link below.
www.oxm.co.uk
Oxm


Slavery: The Game is a hoax

Platform holders and alleged developer all deny knowledge of supposed RTS.

Microsoft, Sony, Sega and The Creative Assembly have all denied knowledge of the existence of Slavery: The Game.

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Guardian Heroes remake out next month

Sega has just announced that the HD remaster of Treasure's classic Sega Saturn brawler will be released on Xbox Live Arcade on October 12. Supporting online play for up to 12 players, it will cost 800 Microsoft Points.
http://www.sega.co.uk/news/
Sega


Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony competition

Win a pair of tickets to the London leg of Nintendo's Zelda celebration concerts.

Remember the orchestral renditions of classic Zelda themes that accompanied Shigeru Miyamoto's appearance at Nintendo's E3 conference this year? Well, the tour he promised is now on, and we have five pairs of tickets to the London leg of the concert to give away.

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Unity expands to Japan

Unity's expansion continues apace: in June it moved its UK operation to larger premises, last month it opened an office in South Korea, and today comes news of a Tokyo office. Focusing on sales, localisation and support to lay the foundations of further future expansion, Unity Technologies Japan will be led by representative director and chairman Shinobu Toyoda, who said: "The Unity community throughout Japan has grown at an expeditious rate over the last few years. With the opening of our Japan subsidiary, we look forward to offering our customers in the region full support and localisation of the development platform."
http://unity3d.com/company/news/
Unity


Bigpoint: Publishers don't understand monetisation

Philip Reisberger says EA, Ubisoft and Valve are missing the point: "If selling an advantage ruins the game, you haven't done the balancing right."

Browser game company Bigpoint has harshly criticised the approach traditional publishers are taking as they make their first forays into free-to-play and explore alternative means of monetising their users.

In an interview, chief games officer Philip Reisberger tells us that the likes of EA, Valve and Ubisoft are wrong to focus on selling virtual goods that enable customisation, rather than a competitive advantage. Bigpoint, he argues, better understands monetisation by virtue of it never having been in the console business.

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Out There: Deus Ex homeware, Edge issue zero

Make your own neo-Renaissance candelabra, buy a copy of Edge for £7,000.

Like a rare lemur, great teamplay in a shooter is a shy and elusive thing. Fortunately for us, Redditor Jegschemesch has shot, skinned, stuffed and categorised it in an excellent breakdown of its many facets.

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Deus Ex suffers last-minute Japan delay

Eidos Montreal's excellent Deus Ex: Human Revolution was set for release in Japan on Thursday, but publisher Square Enix has announced a last-minute delay that will see the game slip to October. The reason, according to Andriasang, is an area in the game that "shows expressions forbidden by the Japanese games rating board." We know that ratings board CERO's guidelines forbid references to existing people or countries, and as such our guess is that the offending material may be graffiti in Heng Sha.
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/09/06/deus_ex_delay/
Andriasang


Sony recruits US government security official

Reuters reports that Sony has appointed Philip Reitinger, formerly director of the US national cyber security center, as its chief information security officer. Kaz Hirai announced the new position in May, in the aftermath of the attack on PSN that resulted in the personal details of over 100 million users being compromised. While Hirai said at the time that the incumbent would report directly to chief information officer Shinji Hasejima, instead Reitinger is to report to general counsel Nicole Seligman.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/06/us-sony-idUSTRE7851PH20110906
Reuters


Three million Dirt 3 codes stolen

UPDATE: AMD has provided the following statement: "This past weekend, activation keys associated with free Dirt 3 game vouchers shipping with select AMD products were compromised. These activation keys were hosted on a thirdparty fulfilment agency website, www.AMD4u.com, and did not reside on AMD’s website. Neither the AMD nor Codemasters servers were involved. We are working closely with Steam, Codemasters, and our fulfilment agency to address the situation. AMD will continue to honour all valid game vouchers, however the current situation may result in a short delay before the vouchers can be redeemed." ORIGINAL STORY: Publisher Codemasters has, together with AMD, been running a promotion giving away a download copy of Dirt 3 to purchasers of one of the latter's graphics cards. Kotaku reports that Codemasters had three million codes sitting on a webserver, which was accessed by hackers. One saving grace is that the codes in question were for Steam, which should make it relatively easy to blacklist the stolen codes, and gives Codemasters or Valve the option of banning those who used them.
http://kotaku.com/5837468/whoops-3-million-copies-of-dirt-3-just-went-missing
Kotaku


Report: Dragon Quest X in development for NES

Well, we didn't see this coming: according to Japanese website Kyoko Shimbun, so strong is Square Enix's faith in Nintendo that the upcoming Dragon Quest X is not just headed to Wii U and Wii, with some unspecified form of 3DS connectivity. It is also in development for the NES. Andriasang has two screenshots which show a battle party of four characters, with an onscreen prompt telling players to connect to the internet. Intriguing.
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/09/06/dragon_quest_x_famicom/
Andriasang


Dead Island review

Something's rotten in Techland's open-world zombie survival FPS.

Conceived in 2005, Dead Island finally makes its shambling way to shop shelves, invigorated by a promotional boost but carrying some telltale traits picked up during its six-year gestation. What began as a straight survival FPS – a wide-eyed go-anywhere, wield-anything premise – arrives looking a bit peaky. We spy Borderlands-shaped toothmarks on its loot-focused weapon customisation and fourplayer online co-op.

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Ninja Theory: "the big retail model is creaking"

Chief designer Tameem Antoniades says odds are stacked against new IP: "The digital revolution can't come soon enough."

Ninja Theory, developer of Heavenly Sword, Enslaved and the upcoming Devil May Cry reboot DmC, has said that the day when the videogame industry goes all in on digital "can't come soon enough," and warned: "the big retail model is creaking."

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"Dragon Quest Shock" causes Sony and Square Enix stock slump

Andriasang brings word from Nikkei that Sony's stock, which has been falling for the last three days, has now hit its lowest level of the year, which one investment manager pinned on yesterday's announcement that Dragon Quest X is headed to Wii and Wii U. Investors are a fickle bunch, and concern over the potential impact on Sony's game business should not be taken as a sign that the financial community is leaning back towards Nintendo. Square Enix's shares fell ten per cent day on day, presumably a result of the company putting all its eggs in the basket of a company whose share price has been in and out of the doldrums for the past few months.
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/09/06/dq_shock/
Andriasang


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