Codemasters Studios vice president Gavin Cheshire has revealed that the company’s currently at work on a sequel to last year’s Colin McRae - Dirt 2.
The executive made the first mention of Dirt 3 during an interview featured in the latest issue of Edge, E213, which hits UK newsagents on March 16 and should be in subscribers' hands now.
Best known for his work as the composer, sound director and producer on the Silent Hill series for Konami, Akira Yamaoka is now working at Grasshopper Manufacture on an unannounced title. Delivering a talk that offered no hints to his future direction, Yamaoka considered the methods that he’s used in sound design to help enhance players’ connection to his games.
Nintendo’s DS was the bestselling system in the US last month, moving 613,000 units, while Microsoft’s Xbox 360 leapfrogged Wii to take the top home console slot with 422,000 sales.
Both systems achieved monthly personal bests, with Nintendo saying that the “DS family of systems set a new US record for portable video game sales in the month of February”, and Microsoft noting that it enjoyed “the biggest February in Xbox 360 history”.
The Xbox 360 version of BioShock 2 topped February software sales in the US marketplace, according to the NPD Group.
Take-Two’s shooter sold 563,000 copies on 360, 7,000 units more than second placed New Super Mario Bros. Wii. NPD noted that PS3 sales of BioShock 2 came in a little short of 200,000 units.
February retail sales in the US videogame market were down 15 per cent year-on-year, from $1.48 billion to $1.26 billion, according to the NPD Group.
Software sales dropped 15 percent, from $736.7 million to $624.4 million, largely in line with Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz’s prior forecast.
Whether you think that videogames should be emulating cinema or music, sport or even the mindless pleasures of card tricks – and whether you think that such comparisons are largely pointless – a big part of their defining appeal will always be this: finding out what happens when you press a button.
Speaking at GDC, Nintendo’s Yoshio Sakamoto downplayed his legacy—which includes the Metroid and WarioWare series—by claiming that as few of the titles he has developed have seen a release outside of Japan, he could be considered a “niche” game developer. And, he said, in Japan the Metroid titles are also considered niche, so “perhaps rather than having global appeal, I really am a developer who can only make niche games.”
Speaking at GDC, Nintendo’s Yoshio Sakamoto downplayed his legacy—which includes the Metroid and WarioWare series—by claiming that as few of the titles he has developed have seen a release outside of Japan, he could be considered a “niche” game developer. And, he said, in Japan the Metroid titles are also considered niche, so “perhaps rather than having global appeal, I really am a developer who can only make niche games.”
LucasArts has announced that Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge will come out this summer for Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, PC and iPhone.
As previously speculated, the special edition features updated graphics and a re-mastered musical score. Monkey Island 2 will also allow gamers to have the option to directly control the main character, Guybrush Threepwood, and abandon the old point-and-click system.
Peter Molyneux has set a target for Fable III to sell at least 5 million units before he'll consider it an artistic success.
Molyneux said that the original Fable sold 3 million units, while the sequel saw sales of 3.5 million units. In order for Fable III to be seen as going in the right direction it must sell more than 5 million units, Monlyneux said, although how he reached that figure isn't immediately clear.
Former Command & Conquer 3 and Red Alert 3 developers have left Electronic Arts’ Los Angeles Studio to form their own independent studio Supergiant Games.
The team is made up of Amir Rao, Gavin Simon and Darren Korb, with the group’s website saying: “We are a group of former EALA developers who quit our jobs in August 2009 and moved into a house together to make games. It's pretty awesome.”
“We’re working on a game for digital download platforms that we hope to release in 2011.”
Epic Games and Valve Software have entered into an agreement to bring Valve’s Steamworks services to all licensees of Epic’s Unreal Engine 3.
Licensees of the industry leading games engine will now be able to fully take advantage of all game features and services in Steam, including: product key authentication, copy protection, auto-updating, social networking, matchmaking and anti-cheat technology.
On Thursday morning, Lionhead Studios’ Peter Molyneux unveiled new features of the upcoming Fable 3 and discussed the challenge of moving away from the RPG niche.
Describing his love of early RPGs such as Wizardry and Ultima, Molyneux noted that these games depended on stats and numbers. “I lost my girlfriend because she was down the pub and I was still playing Ultima. Absolutely adored it. But again, it was a lot of numbers and stats and it was quite techy, and it required you to memorize an awful lot.”
On Thursday morning, Lionhead Studios’ Peter Molyneux unveiled new features of the upcoming Fable 3 and discussed the challenge of moving away from the RPG niche.
Describing his love of early RPGs such as Wizardry and Ultima, Molyneux noted that these games depended on stats and numbers. “I lost my girlfriend because she was down the pub and I was still playing Ultima. Absolutely adored it. But again, it was a lot of numbers and stats and it was quite techy, and it required you to memorize an awful lot.”
Nineties TV show GamesMaster could be set to make a return as Future Publishing says it's “exploring the potential for reviving the brand on TV screens”.
The first-ever UK TV show dedicated to games aired on Channel 4 from 1992 to 1998. Dominik Diamond usually presented, with Sir Patrick Moore appearing in pre-recorded inserts as the 'GamesMaster'.
The news comes as Future confirmed plans to launch a range of cross platform activity to boost its multi-format GamesMaster brand.
New bestseller Battlefield: Bad Company 2 makes a strong impression, but it can’t knock Modern Warfare 2 off the top of the buzz chart.
Modern Warfare 2 retained the buzz chart lead its held almost every week since releasing in November last year, with Brandwatch registering 17,200 mentions, down just slightly from last week’s 17,874.
Warren Spector believes that attempts to appeal to the mass market with new devices like motion controllers are a threat to traditional gaming.
The motion control bandwagon runs the risk of "throwing away our entire history", the veteran designer warned at a GDC event attended by Gamasutra.
Four new titles placed in the top ten on the Japanese software chart during the week ended March 7.
Pokemon Ranger: Tracks Of Light for DS took the top spot, while .hack//Link for PSP and Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels Of The Starry Skies for DS took second and third respectively.
The week’s other new top ten entry was Nobunaga’s Ambition: Tendou for PS3 at number seven.
Sony has said that its newly named PS3 motion controller will “bridge the gap” between core and casual gamers.
Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton has said that “realism” is the key element that differentiates PlayStation Move form its rivals’ motion control offerings.
Sony has revealed that 36 third party developers have signed on to support its newly named motion controller, PlayStation Move.
The platform holder also said that it will release 20 first party titles that are either dedicated to or supported with the PlayStation Move platform during fiscal 2010. Move itself will launch this autumn.
Sony used its GDC press conference to officially name its PS3 motion controller, PlayStation Move.
The company said that the technology, which works with the PlayStation Eye, had been in development for two years and will launch this autumn. Supporting the main Move controller is the Nunchuk-like 'Sub-Controller', a wireless unit sporting an analogue stick and d-pad, pictured below.
The 2010 edition of the Independent Games Summit closed with a spirited selection of indie game rants on topics as varied as the language of gaming, lack of women in games, and impassioned pleas for better games journalism, from speakers including Superbrothers’ Craig D. Adams (Sword and Sworcery EP) and Team Meat’s Tommy Refenes (Super Meat Boy.)
Originally designed for an Experimental Gameplay Project challenge themed around offering the “bare minimum,” Canabalt was a breakout hit in the 99 cents, top ten-orientated iPhone games space despite being priced controversially at $2.99 and never getting higher than 36 in the charts.
In a typically persuasive and impassioned keynote on the step changes social games are making to the entire game industry, Playfish CEO Kristian Segerstrale assured attendees that social games can only grow videogames’ overall audience.