Most of the folks who play role-playing games don’t actually want to 'role-play'. Fantasy games are popular because they’re familiar. They’re the comfort food of genres. But only a fraction of the people who play them really wish they had pointy ears, mead on tap, a crypt in the basement and a dragon in the garage. Games surround us with make-believe, but we don’t believe in it, any more than we believe in the dinosaur at a miniature golf course.
Atari has announced the “phase one re-launch” of Atari.com as it looks to grow its online business.
The publisher’s site now offers a digital download store alongside boxed games for sale, free-to-play coin-op arcade and Atari 2600 titles in the Atari Arcade, and information on the company’s most recent and upcoming releases.
EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich has forecast that the median pricing of Xbox 360 and PS3 titles released in 2010 will decline by $10 to $49.99, but he says this is unlikely to occur until the beginning of next year’s holiday season.
“The expected decrease to $49.99 will be a directly attributable to the continued penetration of the casual market, an increase in quantities of low cost casual games, and a decrease in development costs,” he wrote in EEDAR’s November 2009 newsletter.
A newly uncovered Microsoft patent hints that the platform holder may be developing an in-game guide/FAQ service designed to assist Xbox 360 players struggling to make progress.
Red Octane president Kai Huang has said that Activision is hoping to introduce a subscription service for its popular Guitar Hero franchise.
“That's definitely one of the things we would love to do,” he told the Seattle Times. “There are a lot of issues around music licensing. Consumers want it; I know I want it. We're trying to make that happen.”
New York State authorities are planning to test a new initiative that would see the Emergency Management Office issue disaster alerts over online gaming networks.
Officials believe the likes of Xbox Live and PlayStation Network are relevant channels through which to alert younger citizens to emergency situations, reports Information Week.
NCsoft has banned 16,000 western Aion user accounts, primarily for the use of third party software (botting) or participating in RMT (gold buying/selling).
Community Manager Andrew Beegle said on the MMO’s forums that multiple users would be unable to activate their accounts following a server wide reboot carried out with little notification.
Leading discount website My Voucher Codes UK has said that sales data from its UK retail partners shows Xbox 360 surging ahead of PS3 in the run up to Christmas.
A highlight from our community-written blogs, featuring the serious side of WarCraft.
Nintendo’s DSi LL sold over 100,000 units in its first two days of availability in Japan.
Retailing for 20,000 yen ($225/£135), the large screen DSi attracted queues of shoppers at a number of stores upon its release on Saturday.
Assassin’s Creed II sold 1.6 million copies worldwide in its first week of availability, according to estimates from publisher Ubisoft.
In doing so the Xbox 360 and PS3 title outpaced opening week sales of 2007’s Assassin’s Creed by 32 per cent. The original game has sold over eight million units.
Microsoft has said that over two million users logged in to Facebook via Xbox 360 in the service’s first week of availability.
With around ten per cent of Xbox Live’s 20 million user base accessing Facebook, the service may be the most heavily adopted of the new features introduced with the most recent Xbox 360 system update.
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Sean Murray I had a cat with three legs when I was growing up. I’m not quite sure how it was removed in the first place, but Tripsy never really understood her limb was gone. She would still try to catch flies and give a confused look of longing at where her other paw should be.
Amsterdam, Holland-based Playlogic has posted increased losses and a decline in both revenues and gross profit for the nine months ended September 30.
The Age Of Pirates and Obscure publisher saw a net loss of $6.7 million (£4m) during the period, compared with a loss of $2 million (£1.2m) a year earlier. The company suffered a net loss of $3.2 million (£1.9m) during the third quarter, versus $3 million (£1.8m) last year.
We've 1000 European beta keys to give away – comment or tweet @edgeonline for yours.
And there's more good news - Sony has just confirmed that it will be extending the MAG beta to December 4.
To get hold of yours, please either comment below or send a tweet to @edgeonline containing the hashtag #edgeMAG. We'll dole them out on a first come first served basis in batches.
EA Montreal General Manager Alain Tascan has told us that EA Montreal — as part of the EA Games label — is to refocus the studio on "action titles and HD-quality products" compared to its recent history of Wii titles such as Boogie Superstar and Skate It.
It's more evidence of the restructuring plan EA announced with its recent decision to make 1500 layoffs and purchase of Playfish.
Square Enix's Tokyo developers are to work on the cinematics for Eidos Montreal's upcoming Deus Ex sequel, the studio's general manager Stephane D'Astous told us.
"Deus Ex 3 is going to be the first project which will be a concrete product of joint effort between Square Enix and Eidos," said D'Astous. "The cinematics—by which I mean any CGI pre-rendered cinematics — are going to be done in Tokyo by Square Enix, and that's going to be amazing."
Zynga has announced that more than 100 million unique users now play its social games monthly, “making it the largest online game destination”.
The company says that it has 200 million active monthly users across all its titles, which include FarmVille, Mafia Wars and FishVille, with one million users purchasing virtual goods each month.
Third party accessory maker Datel Design & Development has launched an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft over the platform holder’s decision to lock out unlicensed memory cards on the Xbox 360.
Nintendo has announced two limited edition bundles to be released on Black Friday, which marks the traditional start to the Christmas shopping season in the US.
Consumers will be able to purchase metallic blue or white DSi systems pre-installed with over $20 of software from November 27 until stock runs out.
The metallic blue DSi will come with five Mario-themed DSiWare titles: Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again, Dr. Mario Express, WarioWare: Snapped!, Mario Calculator and Mario Clock.
Wii sales were up 60 per cent in the UK last week, according to Nintendo.
The platform holder said that sales of the limited edition black Wii, released on November 6, doubled week-on-week, helping the platform lead home console sales during the period.
ArenaNet founder and former NCsoft president of product development Jeff Strain has formed a new studio called Undead Labs.
The Seattle, Washington-based studio is “on a mission to take online gaming in bold new directions”, beginning with its in development zombie MMO for consoles.
Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) and the Entertainment Software Association have backed a new $2 million open competition launched by the MacArthur Foundation to find creative ideas to transform learning using digital media.
Activision’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 retained the top spot on UK all formats chart during the week ended November 21, despite an 86 per cent drop in sales compared to its first seven days.
Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed II debuted in second place, having outperformed 2007’s original by around 12 per cent in terms of unit sales, according to GfK Chart-Track.
With the sumptuous looking Critter Crunch having just hit the European PSN Store, Nathan Vella, president of developer Capybara Games, spoke at Montreal Game Summit about the company managed to create its Miyazaki-quality artwork on the shoestring budget of an independent development studio.