We may look back on 2011 as the year of Vita – the rumours, the reveal, the Japanese launch – but it’s a journey that Sony began some years earlier. “Since Kaz Hirai took over as Sony Computer Entertainment president and CEO [in 2006], he instructed SCE’s hardware group to work closely with Worldwide Studios’ creative and tech talents to develop future PlayStation platforms,” says SCE Worldwide Studios (WWS) president Shuhei Yoshida.
Legend Of Heroes Ao No Kiseki is the new number one in the Japanese all-formats software chart.
Falcom's PSP RPG sold 127,938 units in its first week on sale, according to Media Create data translated by Andriasang, a comfortable lead from second-placed Dynasty Warriors 7 Xtreme Legends, which sold 82,901 units.
Last week's number one, Dark Souls, slips to third place. From Software's punishing RPG sold 34,718 units, having sold almost 280,000 copies last week.
Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman and former CEO of Apple, has died at the age of 56.
Apple confirmed that Jobs died yesterday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being," reads a statement on the company's website. "Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor.
Yakuza: Of The End will be released in the west in March 2012 under the name Yakuza: Dead Souls.
The game is a spin-off from the main Yakuza series, a thirdperson shooter starring protagonist Kazuma Kiryu and cohorts as they try to survive in a zombie-infested Kabukicho.
Gary Knight, senior vice president of marketing at Sega, said: "We know how much people love Yakuza in the west and with Dead Souls being the latest and greatest in the franchise it's only right we bring it to them closer to the Japanese release than ever."
Market research firm NPD Group has today revealed that revenue from sales of new games at retail fell behind other channels in the second quarter of 2011.
Sales of new, boxed products in the three months to June 30 totalled $1.44 billion, while revenue from other channels - including second-hand, full-game downloads, subscriptions, rentals, DLC, social and mobile - reached $1.74 billion.
With hardware sales included, the US videogame market was worth $4.5 billion during the quarter, an increase year on year of one per cent.
If you work in the videogame industry, your goal should be to entertain and delight as many people as possible, and everything you do should be measured against it. The logical consequence of this is that players are the constituency you should really care about: everything you do should be aimed at making them happy, as they can make your life really difficult if they decide that they’re not being catered to properly, and reward you handsomely if they are satisfied.
Japanese publisher Marvelous Entertainment has finalised its merger with Liveware and AQ Interactive.
AQ Interactive, the parent company of Blue Dragon and Yoshi's Island DS developer Artoon, Nier studio Cavia, and Feelplus, developer of No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise and Moon Diver, has been dissolved following the merger, as has mobile and social developer Liveware.
Clothing retailer Urban Outfitters is, in partnership with Kiranbe Collectibles, selling a 1989 Donkey Kong Game & Watch. For £130.
Gunpei Yokoi's original gaming portable may be collectible, but with eBay prices ranging between £20 to £50 we just hope Urban Outfitters hasn't overstocked.
Kaio King Of Pirates, the 3DS action-RPG in development at Keiji Inafune's Intercept studio, was announced a few hours ago. In an unusual move, the game's debut trailer and official website have already been translated into English.
LA Noire developer Team Bondi is to close its doors, according to documents filed with the Australian Securities And Investments Commission.
Earlier today, forms were submitted confirming that a liquidator has been appointed, with the company to be wound up, following a meeting of creditors last week. The liquidator will now handle the sale of Team Bondi's remaining assets and payment of outstanding debts.
Mediabistro has added more speakers and exhibitors to its Social Gaming Summit London event, due to take place November 14 and 15 at Chelsea Football Club.
WeeWorld CEO Celia Francis will deliver a presentation on online, social and mobile convergence; kiip founder Brian Wong's session will cover the "moments-based" advertising model; and SigusLabs managing director Arseny Lebdev will chair a discussion looking at web platforms for games.
Adult Swim's record as a publisher includes Robot Unicorn Attack, a browser and later iOS Canabalt-alike featuring a rainbow unicorn running to Erasure's Always. We'd recommend it. It's hard to ignore the cable TV channel's chosen videogame projects and Monsters Ate My Condo, developed by PikPok of Flick Kick Football fame, is another reason why.
Reiner Knizia is a designer extraordinaire of board games, many of which have already found their way onto iOS, including the excellent Samurai. But in recent years Knizia's work has been finding its way onto iOS less as conversions, and more as platform-specific new games.
Amid all the fresh new developers that the App Store supports, it's easy to miss how it's given a little bit of freedom to some of the more venerable software houses. Boutique blaster outfit Llamasoft's recent output speaks for itself: Goat Up is its fourth game of 2011.
Amid all the fresh new developers that the App Store supports, it's easy to miss how it's given a little bit of freedom to some of the more venerable software houses. Boutique blaster outfit Llamasoft's recent output speaks for itself: Goat Up is its fourth game of 2011.
Capcom legend Keiji Inafune has announced Kaio, an action-RPG for 3DS from his new studio Intercept.
Andriasang reports that Kaio - which translates as Sea King - has multiplayer support and a pirate setting, though the main character is a penguin. Its western name is King Of Pirates.
The game is being developed by Intercept in collaboration with Marvelous AQL, the newly formed company comprising Marvelous Entertainment, AQ Interactive and Liveware, and will be released in Japan next year.
On stage at yesterday's Let's Talk iPhone event held at its Cupertino headquarters, Tim Cook, new CEO of Apple, said that the iPod Touch had become the world's most popular portable gaming device.
"Not only is it the most popular music player in the world, but we're excited to announce it's now also the most popular portable game player in the world," he said.
Epic Games has announced that Adobe Flash now supports Unreal Engine 3, with CTO Tim Sweeney showing Unreal Tournament III running in a Flash-based environment during his keynote address at Adobe Max 11 in Los Angeles yesterday.
The move means games of similar graphical quality to some of the current console generation's biggest blockbusters will be playable in web browsers, on internet-connected TVs and social networks, and goes a long way to ensure Flash's longevity despite HTML5 being touted as the future of videogames on the web.
Epic Games has announced that Adobe Flash now supports Unreal Engine 3, with CTO Tim Sweeney showing Unreal Tournament III running in a Flash-based environment during his keynote address at Adobe Max 11 in Los Angeles yesterday.
The move means games of similar graphical quality to some of the current console generation's biggest blockbusters will be playable in web browsers, on internet-connected TVs and social networks, and goes a long way to ensure Flash's longevity despite HTML5 being touted as the future of videogames on the web.
FIFA 12 has sold-through 3.2 million units across all platforms since its September 27 debut, making it the biggest release in the history of sports games and the number one global videogame launch of 2011, according to preliminary internal estimates from publisher Electronic Arts.
Sell-through is thought to be up 23 per cent over last year's FIFA 11 launch. The iPhone and iPad versions of the new game have shifted 879,000 units, with the former becoming the top-grossing app for Apple’s device on 30 worldwide storefronts.
Apple's iPhone 4S press conference today played host to the unveiling of Epic Games subsidiary Chair Entertainment’s Infinity Blade 2, the follow-up to December 2010’s iOS smash hit.
The sequel will be exclusive to iOS devices, launching on December 1, 2011 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, Gamasutra reports. It will support iOS 5 features including iCloud, enabling users to transfer profiles between devices.
A new report from the NPD Group has found that US children aged between two and 14 have increased their spending on digital games content by 17 per cent over the past two years.
The Kids and Entertainment Content report noted that for every dollar children spend on entertainment content, $0.79 goes on physical content and $0.21 towards digital.
The majority of kids’ content collections across both physical and digital formats consist of music with a 72 per cent share, followed by movies, games, TV shows, books and apps.
Apple has announced iPhone 4S, an upgraded version of June’s 2010’s iPhone 4, which will be available from Friday, October 14 in Europe and North America in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models.
Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said the device will feature the same dual-core processor found in the iPad 2. The A5 chip will make the phone itself "up to twice as fast as before" and enable graphics to run up to seven times quicker than on the previous iPhone.
Apple will launch iOS 5 on October 12, the firm announced this evening during a press conference at its Cupertino, California headquarters.
Available for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad and iPad 2, plus the third and fourth generation iPod Touch models, the free operating system update will add a range of new features.
Microsoft has announced that it has cancelled production of its Zune portable media player.
The news confirms reports from earlier this year, which claimed the platform holder would discontinue Zune hardware in the face of “tepid demand”. The last Zune player released was 2009's Zune HD.
In a statement, Microsoft stressed that the move will not affect current Zune owners as the portable entertainment brand will live on across various Microsoft platforms.