Darkness, light, heaven, earth and sea. Sun, moon, grass, fish and fowl. And then, just six days in, comes man. Player one takes the stage and the creation process is complete. Black & White is a game that from the off does little to discourage Christian parallels, whether it’s the swirling darkness and light of the opening sequence or the conventional cloud-perching, snow-bearded deity who represents your good conscience. It may be a convenient shorthand, but Black & White took the god-game label more seriously than ever before.
Format: HTML
Developer: n/a
www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
I’m not a person, I’m a letter.
But DSi retains top placing in Japanese weekly hardware sales chart for the week ending October 4.
That said, DSi’s sales figures were down 1,000 while PSP enjoyed 34,000 more sales compared to last week’s figures. It’s hardly a surprise, with PSP-3000 taking a 15 per cent price cut in the region on October 1.
All 61 staff from Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows developer affected by latest round in Activision cutbacks.
A statement from the publisher stated, “Activision continually evaluates the resources at our studio properties to ensure that they are properly matched to our product slate and overall strategic goals.
"As part of this process, we recently made the difficult but necessary decision to close Shaba Studios. We are grateful for the studio's contributions and wish this talented team success in their future endeavors.”
The trouble with ‘myth-busting’ studio visits is that they all too often become myth-affirming. Whether out of need, defiance or simple denial, sometimes a developer actually believes that the way to silence critics is to show them more of what they doubted in the first place. So it’s with some trepidation that we walk through the gates of Ealing Studios, currently home to the next St Trinian’s movie, to find out if WarDevil, a game that most people still associate with a 2004 technical teaser clip, is anything more than CGI fluff.
The trouble with ‘myth-busting’ studio visits is that they all too often become myth-affirming. Whether out of need, defiance or simple denial, sometimes a developer actually believes that the way to silence critics is to show them more of what they doubted in the first place. So it’s with some trepidation that we walk through the gates of Ealing Studios, currently home to the next St Trinian’s movie, to find out if WarDevil, a game that most people still associate with a 2004 technical teaser clip, is anything more than CGI fluff.
Format: 360, PC
Release: Out now
Developer: LucasArts
Publisher: LucasArts
"When I play with my toys it helps me escape the things I don’t want to think about."
Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has backed Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to take the top spot on the UK chart this Christmas.
While FIFA 09 headed the chart over the Christmas week in 2008, the bookie expects Activision’s shooter to place ahead of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed II and FIFA 10 this year.
Ahead of the release of September’s NPD sales data for the US game market next Thursday, analysts have predicted a return to double-digit growth after six months of decline.
Wedbush’s Michael Pachter and EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich expect monthly software sales of $750 million (up 21 per cent year-on-year) and $715 million (up 16 per cent) respectively, driven by the likes of Halo: ODST, The Beatles: Rock Band, Guitar Hero 5, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 and Wii Sports Resort.
When 31st century archeologists dig through the fossilised remains of the typical 21st century home, what will they find as evidence of how we once amused ourselves? Will 2005-2009 be seen as an explosion in interface diversity, from gestural remotes to plastic guitars, drums, wheels, microphones and balance boards? Or will this too be seen as prelude to the Age of the Camera – complete with a built-in microphone – and our glorious future of controller-free gaming?
Frank O'Connor, creative director of 343 Industries, the Microsoft division responsible for all things Halo, has been speaking about the company’s extensive plans for the franchise.
Sony has responded to concerns over the high pricing of downloadable games for it new PSP Minis service.
Early offerings for the service - which recently debuted alongside the PSPgo - have been no cheaper than the average PlayStation Network title and more expensive than their iPhone counterparts.
Frontier Developments’ follow-up to last year’s bestselling WiiWare launch title LostWinds is to mark the 100th release for Nintendo’s downloadable games service in Europe.
Platform: PSP
Release: Out now
Developer: Rockstar Leeds
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2 has been cleared for release in Australia after the country’s classification board granted a modified version of the title an MA 15+ rating.
Activision has reportedly closed Shaba Games, the developer behind last year’s PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Spider-Man: Web Of Shadows.
Founded in September 1997, the San Francisco-based studio has also worked on a series of multiplatform Tony Hawk’s ports and Shrek titles for the publisher.
Gearbox head questions Valve’s conflict of interest with Steam and suggests the industry does not trust the digital distribution platform.
It says a lot about the un-met potential of Sony’s handheld that it can seem like the underdog when compared to a mobile phone that has only been a games platform for a year or so. Whatever its fortunes to date, however, with the release of its new Minis line, the PSP seems determined to tackle the iPhone head-on when it comes to bite-sized downloadable gaming.
Sega of America has named Masanao Maeda as its new COO, while former Sega of America and Sega of Europe CEO Naoya Tsurumi has relocated to Japan to become the managing director of the company’s consumer business division.
Maeda is credited with helping Sega expand into western markets by investing in developers like Creative Assembly. In his new position he’ll oversee all of the day-to-day business for Sega of America including sales, marketing and product development.
Digital distribution will outstrip traditional retail sales within three years and 40 per cent of companies within the games sector are unprepared for the rate at which this shift will take place, according to speakers at the upcoming London Games Conference.
Focusing on digital distribution and the new challenge for publishers and developers to create closer links with their customers, the event will be staged on October 27 at BAFTA’s headquarters in London.
Sulake, the Finnish company behind Habbo, the popular virtual world and social networking service for teenagers, is expected to cut around 40 members of staff.
According to Paidcontent, tweets from affected employees and Finnish media reports indicate that around 20 per cent of the company’s workforce will be let go, with redundancy negotiations set to begin on Monday.
Amazon has begun selling codes for PlayStation Network downloads, with an initial offering of over 200 PSN titles and pieces of game-related content.
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has said that easy achievements can increase a game's sales by up to 40,000 units.
"The achievement hunter, who's going to make purchase decisions around the achievements per minute to ratio - he's probably buying ten to twenty titles a year, or at least playing that many," Pitchford told OXM. "He's playing a lot. So he's a very frequent customer, and you want to be in that pile. That's just business.”
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has said that easy achievements can increase a game's sales by up to 40,000 units.
"The achievement hunter, who's going to make purchase decisions around the achievements per minute to ratio - he's probably buying ten to twenty titles a year, or at least playing that many," Pitchford told OXM. "He's playing a lot. So he's a very frequent customer, and you want to be in that pile. That's just business.”
The October 1 launch of PSPgo has "generated strong consumer interest” in the handheld platform, according to Sony Computer Entertainment America.
SCEA's director of corporate communications and social media, Patrick Seybold, told Kotaku that in the three days following the launch of PSPgo the company's "top retail partners" saw a 300 per cent jump in PSP hardware sales week-on-week.