64 per cent of consumers prefer buying games on physical discs over digital copies, according to a survey of over 1,000 people by research firm Ipsos MediaCT.
63 per cent said they preferred physical newspapers to digital ones, but the numbers were lower for music and film, with 55 per cent and 49 per cent of those polled preferring to buy digitally, MCV reports.
Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada believes game companies’ globalisation efforts have been a failure to date.
Format: 360
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Ruffian Games
Release: Out now
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The first part of NASA’s space MMOG, Astronaut: Moon, Mars And Beyond will be launched today on Steam for free.
Moonbase Alpha has been created by Virtual Heroes, the team responsible for America’s Army, and sets out to provide a “persistent, synthetic environment supporting education as a laboratory, a massive visualization tool and collaborative workspace while simultaneously drawing users into a challenging, game-play immersion”. In short, learning through play.
Leading games industry figures are concerned that the US Supreme Court has chosen to review a California law proposing restrictions on the sale or rental of violent games.
The Supreme Court said in April that it will review the law during its next term beginning this October, despite the motion being struck down as unconstitutional in a lower court ruling.
Steam, and the burgeoning online presence of consoles, has proven that there is a strong market for games distributed only as digital media. Now companies like OnLive are offering a way to play games which circumvents even the download - streaming the title directly from their own servers, to subscribers. But where does the ownership of a game lie if it can only be played in conjunction with a subscription? Moreover, will players continue to invest time in a game that they must keep paying to play?
Sony Japan has revealed the PS3 Move launch line-up, including software, bundles and pricing.
Sony will launch a “Classic White” PS3 and increase storage capacity on a number of PS3 models later this month in Japan.
The black PS3 will be available with 160GB and 320GB hard drives, with the 160GB version also available in white. The higher capacity consoles and new colour will launch on July 29 at recommended retail prices of 29,980 yen (£225) and 34,980 yen (£262) respectively, alongside white versions of the DualShock 3 controller and vertical stand for PS3.
Since at least Final Fantasy VII, an argument has been abroad that ‘emotional’ content is what signals (or will signal) videogames’ ‘maturity’. But this idea, lately rampant in the mainstream coverage of Chubby Drizzle, often conflates two very different processes – depicting emotion (in the game’s ‘characters’) versus evoking emotion (in the player).
News Corporation has hired digital media veteran Sean Ryan to set up and manage the company’s new games unit.
A former CEO of social network service Meez and blogging platform LiveJournal, Ryan is now News Corp. Digital’s executive vice president and general manager, according to PaidContent.
Rock Band 3 lead designer Dan Teasdale has left Harmonix to do more hands on work at The Maw and 'Splosion Man developer Twisted Pixel.
Mythic Entertainment, also previously named EA Mythic, is now called Bioware Mythic.
The news was revealed by Warhammer Online producer Carrie Gouskos in a letter to the game's community, in which she said that the company is to take over management of the title in Europe from publisher GOA, as it did with Dark Age Of Camelot in February.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick would like to break the walled gardens of online console services like Xbox Live.
The executive told the Financial Times he’s frustrated by existing business models that see companies like Microsoft benefiting most from the success of online third party content, such as that released for Activision’s Call of Duty series.
Format: 360, PC, PS3
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Raven Software
Release: Out now
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Independent pressure group Gamers’ Voice is working with TIGA on the trade association’s efforts to persuade the UK’s coalition government to introduce games tax relief.
Formed by Tom Watson MP in November 2009 , Gamers’ Voice is a Facebook group with over 17,000 members. It’s currently emailing MPs asking them to show support for games tax relief by signing a new Early Day Motion (EDM) tabled by Stewart Hosie MP.
Lionhead Studios boss Peter Molyneux will demo Fable III at next week’s Develop conference in Brighton.
He’ll discuss how the game’s development team has married story, cast and simulation. His talk will culminate in the exclusive UK demo of the game, showing how his theory works in practice.
The NPD Group has released a top 20 software sales chart for May, following the publication of the top ten last Friday.
The chart shows that the Xbox 360 version of Capcom's Lost Planet 2 debuted at 11, while Sony's PS3-exclusive ModNation Racers ranked at 18, Gamasutra reports.
While software sales have fallen during 2010, the quality of games released is up year-on-year, according to a new report from review aggregator Metacritic.
US software sales to the end of May were down six per cent year-on-year, but Metacritic says the average game Metascore has been higher in 2010 than during the first six months of 2009, meaning titles have been receiving better reviews.
Warner’s Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 held the top spot on the UK all formats chart during the week ended July 3, according to data from GfK Chart-Track.
Red Dead Redemption and Super Mario Galaxy 2 were non-movers in second and third respectively, ahead of the week’s highest new entry, EA’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 in fourth.
Ubisoft’s Dance On Broadway was new at six, while City Interactive’s Sniper: Ghost Warrior debuted in tenth place.
UK games industry trade association TIGA has picked up two awards at the annual Trade Association Forum Best Practice Awards in London.
TIGA was awarded ‘The Member Recruitment Award’ and the top award ‘Trade Association of the Year 2010’. It also received a commendation for its ‘Sector Representation’ work.
EDIT: To clarify, this offer is only available for UK subscriptions.
Edge publisher Future is currently offering a 50 per cent sale across its entire range of gaming magazines.
Throughout July you can pick up OPM, OXM, ONM, Edge, PC Gamer, GamesMaster, PSM3, Xbox World 360, NGamer and PC Zone for half price.
Pick the ones you want here and have them delivered to your door.
Format: PC
Release: Out now
Publisher: Realtime Worlds
Developer: Realtime Worlds
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Sony Computer Entertainment senior director Mick Hocking will deliver a presentation entitled ‘3D: The Next Dimension in Gaming’ at the Develop conference in Brighton on July 15.
Hocking, who leads Sony’s WWS stereoscopic 3D team and is group studio director for Evolution Studios, SCE Studio Liverpool and BigBig Studios, will take the audience through the history of 3D entertainment from its beginnings back in 1850 and explain why he believes it’s here to stay.
Risk: Factions
Developer: EA
Format: XBLA
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The release of the slim Xbox 360 and price cuts to older models have resulted in “a significant sales spike” for the platform in the US since mid-June, according to Microsoft.
“… We are hearing great feedback from retailers that the new Xbox 360 250GB is experiencing unprecedented demand,” the company said in a statement.