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August 03, 2011

Iwata fears 3DS price cut may hit Wii U sales

Speaking on an investor call, company president Satoru Iwata said that Nintendo would not be revealing a price or release date for the Wii successor until 2012, and admits that the firm has to ensure it wins back the trust of its customers before Wii U is released. "What we have to take most seriously is that the price markdown could damage the trust of consumers who bought 3DS just after launch," he said. "[It] has a side effect that, at the launch of the Wii U, people may feel that the price might drop in the near future if they wait. What we will be able to do to recover the consumers' trust before the launch of the Wii U is very important to us."
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/314103/wii-u-price-release-date-to-be-announced-in-2012
CVG


Grasshopper's Sine Mora trailer

This collaboration between Suda51's Grasshopper Manufacture and Hungarian developer Digital Reality was first announced almost a year ago. The teaser trailer doesn't show any gameplay footage - it was described last August as mixing "traditional side-scrolling gameplay with unique time manipulation mechanics." We'll soon know more: the game is set for release on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network before the year is out.
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2011/08/first_trailer_for_grashopperdi.php
Game Set Watch


Ubisoft in pixel art war with BNP

A post on gaming forum NeoGaf reveals a recent battle between Ubisoft Montreuil and the neighbouring branch of Banque Nationale de Paris. Ubisoft started it all, with a row of Space Invaders crafted from Post-It notes, but over the space of several weeks of back-and-forth creations the office windows feature characters from Bubble Bobble, Super Mario Bros, Pac-Man, Street Fighter II and Zelda. We suggest any analysts puzzled by a downturn in Ubisoft's next set of financial results look no further than the stationery budget. Follow the source link below for the pictures.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=29798251&postcount=1
NeoGaf


Borderlands 2 announced

In a press release, Take-Two has confirmed that a sequel to 2009's Borderlands is under development at Gearbox Software. Borderlands 2 will be released during the next fiscal year which begins on April 1, 2012, for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
http://www.borderlands2.com/
Take-Two


David Braben on Raspberry Pi

“Computer education has been oriented around being good consumers, and not good creators,” says the co-creator of the $25 PC.

David Braben came to this year’s Develop Conference to discuss Raspberry Pi, a $25 Linux-based computer that he (along with the rest of the Raspberry Pi Foundation) hopes will help re-engage school children with computer science. We caught up with him to discuss its current status.

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There's no such thing as embargoes

Making journalists behave isn't as important as giving gamers the information they want, says Thom Dinsdale.

This is an article about the changing role of press embargoes. The difficulty in writing anything at all on the subject of embargoes is that, even as many of the arguments have become familiar and well worn (and I can highly recommend John Keefer’s 2008 piece to that end), the issue ceases to be any less contentious. Hardly a day goes by that some exasperated journalist somewhere doesn’t bemoan the shrinking walls of the PRison in which they are forced to work.

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Voting opens for Golden Joystick Awards 2011

Shortlist revealed for annual videogame awards, with new gongs for mobile, downloadable and free-to-play.

Voting has opened for the 29th annual GamesMaster Golden Joystick awards, run by Edge parent Future Publishing, with gamers worldwide able to have their say ahead of the awards ceremony in October.

There are 14 categories in all, with new awards for downloadable, mobile and free-to-play games. Those who vote in all categories will be in with a chance of winning the GamesMaster Ultimate Gaming Prize, which includes consoles and games.

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Voting opens for Golden Joystick Awards 2011

Shortlist revealed for annual videogame awards, with new gongs for mobile, downloadable and free-to-play.

Voting has opened for the 29th annual GamesMaster Golden Joystick awards, run by Edge parent Future Publishing, with gamers worldwide able to have their say ahead of the awards ceremony in October.

There are 14 categories in all, with new awards for downloadable, mobile and free-to-play games. Those who vote in all categories will be in with a chance of winning the GamesMaster Ultimate Gaming Prize, which includes consoles and games.

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Capcom strengthens social presence with Snoopy deal

The publisher's social subsidiary, Beeline Interactive, has announced a partnership with Peanuts that will see Beeline release social games featuring Snoopy and friends around the world. Capcom says it will use the licence to build on its success in the social space with Smurfs Village, the controversial freemium iOS game which, together with Capcom's Lil' Pirates and Zombie Café, has been downloaded more than 20 million times. In a statement, Beeline said the deal would "lead to even faster growth on a global scale in the steadily expanding market for social games."
http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/news/html/e110803.html
Capcom


Atlus: Catherine is our biggest-ever launch

Speaking to IGN, Atlus' Tim Pivnicny said last week's US launch of Team Persona's erotic thriller Catherine was the most successful in the company's history. "Catherine has exceeded our highest expectations," he said. "It released last week to tremendous critical acclaim and fan response, and continues to generate discussion among fans. It is fitting, then, that Catherine can boast the largest launch in the 20-year history of Atlus, and continues to see strong sales at retail." Deep Silver is to publish the game in Europe later this year.
http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/118/1185654p1.html
IGN


Blizzard trademark hints at new Warcraft expansion

MMO Champion spotted Blizzard's filing last week with the US Patent and Trademark Office for "Mists Of Pandaria", which covers "computer game software". It's all speculation at this point, but it appears that this will be the fourth World Of Warcraft expansion. A document containing Blizzard's five-year release schedule, leaked last December, showed the firm was planning two further WOW expansions: one in Q2 2012, and the fifth in Q4 2013.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2399-Mists-of-Pandaria
MMO Champion


Iwata writes to "betrayed" 3DS owners

Company president publishes contrite letter to early adopters, admitting global price cut is a "drastic step."

Satoru Iwata has written to early Japanese adopters of the 3DS, acknowledging they "may feel betrayed" and admitting there is "nothing [Nintendo] can do to completely make up for the feeling that you are being punished for buying the system early."

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August 02, 2011

Namco Bandai posts first quarter profit, sales growth

Japanese publisher Namco Bandai swung to a first quarter profit on improved sales in the three months ended June 30. The company's content division - which houses its game business as well as network, visual and music content - saw revenue grow 8.1 per cent year-over-year to ¥35.6 billion (£283.4m), and posted an operating income of ¥519 million (£4.1m), versus a loss a year earlier. Net sales for the company as a whole were up 7.7 per cent to ¥88.2 billion (£702.2m), with net profit of ¥3.25 billion (£25.9m), compared to a first quarter loss a year ago. The publisher sold just shy of 3.4 million games during the period, up from 3.15 million last year. Unit sales were led by PS3 (657,000), Xbox 360 (651,000) and 3DS (622,000) games. Namco’s top three titles were all 3DS games - Japanese releases One Piece Unlimited Cruse SP and Tales Of The Abyss took the top two spots, ahead of US release Ridge Racer.
http://www.bandainamco.co.jp/en/ir/index.html
Namco Bandai


Blackley: "Consoles aren't dead. They've won"

Xbox co-creator tells us consoles are everywhere and explains why the success of games on iOS is "a total victory".

Seamus Blackley, the man who spearheaded Microsoft's Xbox project, has told us that those who believe the rise of Facebook, iOS devices and cloud gaming means the death of the traditional console are wrong, saying: "The console business has won."

Blackley recently quit his position at Hollywood talent agency CAA in order to return to game development, and he believes there has never been a better time to do so: the potential audience is bigger than ever, and consoles are everywhere.

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Evo 2K11 report

Comebacks and upsets abound at the annual world fighting game championships in Las Vegas.

Last weekend, an estimated 5,000 fighting game fans descended on the Rio Hotel And Casino in Las Vegas for the tenth annual Evolution Championship Series. Known as Evo, it's the world fighting game championship, the biggest tournament of its kind in the year, and with the recent resurgence of fighting games, this year's was bigger than ever.

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EA Sports Season Ticket announced

Annual membership scheme offers early access to games, discounted DLC and more.

Electronic Arts has announced the EA Sports Season Ticket, a membership scheme that rewards users with early access to games and discounted downloadable content.

The Season Ticket gives members access to participating games three games before they hit store shelves by digital download, and a 20 per cent discount on DLC. EA also rather vaguely promises "premium web content" and "membership recognition" to those that sign up.

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"Unlimited Detail" engine gets new airing

Euclideon releases new video of its apparently groundbreaking 3D engine, which promises "100,000 times" better graphics.

Following its original reveal a year ago, Brisbane-based technology company Euclideon has released a new video of its engine, which purports to show off progress it has made - and the "largest breakthrough since 3D graphics began".

The results are remarkable. The camera zooms into the company's logo, revealing it to be made of a one kilometre square world of trees, rock and ruined ancient buildings, and then it shows the ground to be made from individual clods of dirt. It consists, the video claims, of 21,062,352,435,000 polygons, and it runs at 20 frames a second.

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Capps: console freemium some way off

Speaking to Gamasutra, the Epic Games president said the increasingly prevalent free-to-play, microtransaction-supported model will not reach consoles "as quickly as everyone thinks," with price and the need for retailers standing in freemium's way. "It'll be a while before the trend hits the console space," he said. "I don't know about most gamers, but as soon as I spend $60, I don't want to spend five times that on additional sales for the game - I feel like I should get a good solid experience for that money. We love [retailers], that's how we get people excited about our games. I like having those game stores and I don't want to lose them."
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/36153/Epics_Capps_F2P_Wont_Take_Over_As_Quickly_As_Everyone_Thinks.php
Gamasutra


Capps: console freemium some way off

Speaking to Gamasutra, the Epic Games president said the increasingly prevalent free-to-play, microtransaction-supported model will not reach consoles "as quickly as everyone thinks," with price and the need for retailers standing in freemium's way. "It'll be a while before the trend hits the console space," he said. "I don't know about most gamers, but as soon as I spend $60, I don't want to spend five times that on additional sales for the game - I feel like I should get a good solid experience for that money. We love [retailers], that's how we get people excited about our games. I like having those game stores and I don't want to lose them."
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/36153/Epics_Capps_F2P_Wont_Take_Over_As_Quickly_As_Everyone_Thinks.php
Gamasutra


Tsunoda: Kinect ports won't deliver best experience

Responding to our concerns over the accuracy of Kinect when it comes to controlling games which require precision, Microsoft creative director Kudo Tsunoda stressed that it comes down to design, not the device. "No matter what, if you build an experience for one type of platform or device and then bring it over to another one, it’s always going to play better on the platform that it’s built from the ground up for," he said when we offered Child Of Eden as an example. "I think you see with Kinect experiences today it’s not about precision, but if we made Kinect experiences like track and field in Kinect Sports and had you running down the track using a game pad instead of Kinect it would not feel as good," he continued. "I think that’s where it’s at. If it’s built from the ground up for Kinect it will feel better than with the controller, if it’s built for a controller it’ll feel better than with Kinect, and I think that makes sense."
http://www.next-gen.biz/features/kudo-tsunoda-kinect
Kudo Tsunoda on Kinect


Epic: Gears 3 leak "frustrating and saddening"

In an extensive interview published on the site today, executive producer Rod Fergusson admits the premature leak earlier this month of a development build of Gears Of War 3 was "saddening" and "frustrating," but saves his harshest words for those who sought out story spoilers. "It's people choosing to ruin their own experience," he tells us. "I get people going, 'oh no, I just watched this thing on YouTube and it's totally given away something'. And I go, 'well, why did you go looking and why did you watch it?'" He also hints at repercussions for those that shared video footage of the game, saying: "We're extremely diligent about getting that stuff taken down and issued a call to fans to not perpetuate it…and just keeping track of those who do. I don't think everybody's aware of the potential repercussions of those types of actions."
http://www.next-gen.biz/features/rod-fergusson-interview
Rod Fergusson on Gears Of War 3


Trip Hawkins criticises lack of Flash on iOS

As part of a larger interview with the EA and Digital Chocolate founder, Hawkins claimed that Apple wants "you to be in the App Store rather than the browser, so they cripple the browser". "They’re like, ‘Oh it’s nothing against Flash; we just prefer HTML5’. Well, Flash can actually make a really good game, and with HTML5 you can’t do that." He also attacked the App Store's closed nature: "For Apple to decide that they’re going to be the censors ... it just doesn’t really work that well, because they still end up with a thousand farting applications." For more on why Hawkins left Apple and why he's on Steve Jobs' "shit list for life", read the full interview at the source link below.
http://www.next-gen.biz/features/trip-hawkins-apple
Trip Hawkins on Apple


"Miscommunication" over Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions save system

Namco has issued a statement saying that Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions' save game can in fact be deleted by holding ABXYLR on the 3DS. The clarification follows yesterday's assertion from the game's QA lead that "There is no way to erase the save from within the game itself without misusing the hardware, causing corruption." Namco has apologised for any confusion, saying that there has been a "miscommunication".
http://www.namcobandaigames.com/
Namco Bandai


Kudo Tsunoda on Kinect

Microsoft's creative director talks control accuracy, learning real world skills and modding.

Since its release, Kinect has been threatening to make good on its promise to shake up the way we play. But aside from a couple of standout titles, the games available have yet to fully embrace the devices full body tracking potential. We caught up with Kudo Tsunoda, creative director of Microsoft and Xbox 360 Kinect, to discuss what the company has learned since Kinect's release, what he thinks does and doesn't work on the device and where what we can expect from it in the future.

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Aaron Staton: My Favourite Game

The Mad Men and LA Noire star talks gaming on set and phone emulation.

Aaron Staton will have come to most people’s attention via the AMC TV series Mad Men, but more recently the 31-year-old actor has become the face – quite literally – of Depth Analysis’ MotionScan technology, playing troubled detective Cole Phelps in Team Bondi’s groundbreaking crime thriller LA Noire. When he’s not starring in games, he’s a keen consumer of them…

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