Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, claims to be confident that Microsoft’s console will outsell Sony’s PS3 this generation.
Speaking ahead of the delayed release of NPD’s monthly sales data for the US videogame industry, the executive said he expects PS3 to emerge as the victor in September, but that Xbox 360 will be the winner in the long term.
Publisher Sega has confirmed that Obsidian's espionage RPG Alpha Protocol has been delayed from this October to the spring of 2010.
“By pushing Alpha Protocol to spring 2010, we can ensure that the game will be released in the best commercial release window possible and will also receive the focus this true AAA titles deserves,” said Sega of Europe's managing director, Alan Pritchard.
Discussing high definition graphics, Shigeru Miyamoto has said that Nintendo's games will “move along in step with the progression of technology”, but the designer maintained that gameplay is still the company’s key focus.
Sony Computer Entertainment America will release a 250GB PS3 in the US on November 3.
Retailing for $349.99, the 250GB PS3 will offer the same form factor and functionality as the current 120GB system.
The NPD Group has delayed the public release of September sales data for the US videogame industry.
“We have just released a communication to our clients, explaining that, due to last minute processing requirements, the NPD Video Games Retail Tracking information for September 2009 will now be released on Monday, October 19,” said NPD’s David Riley.
If Modern Warfare 2 was actually a game about modern warfare, it wouldn’t be half as much fun as it is. To the best of our knowledge, heartbeat-detecting weapons are not deployed on any real-life battlefield, R&R does not involve slalom snowmobile races in which drivers shoot each other in the face, and two soldiers versus 40 snipers is not a scenario from this or any era. Importantly, it’s not a scene from a movie either. Leaving the Black Hawk Down-isms to a secretive campaign, the new Special Ops modes are 100 per cent videogame.
Visual effects company Digital Domain is to open a new Florida-based office focusing on creating original content for games and animated feature films.
The company is credited on feature films including Titanic, The Day After Tomorrow and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, and has three Academy Awards to its name for visual effects work.
Digital Domain said that plans for the new studio “are in the early stages” but that it hopes to begin operations in Florida next year. It’s currently building a creative development team.
Today we’ve launched a new weekly analysis of internet buzz relating to videogames.
Produced in association with brand intelligence specialist Brandwatch, the Edge Games Index rates games according to the volume of positive and negative buzz they're inspiring on the web.
Today we present on Edge a new weekly analysis of internet buzz relating to videogames.
Every Thursday, the Edge Games Index, produced in association with Brandwatch, will rate games according to the volume of positive and negative buzz they're inspiring on the web.
Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver returned to the top of the Japanese all formats chart during the week ended October 11.
The DS remakes of 2000’s Game Boy Color titles Pokémon Gold and Silver have now racked up almost 2.5 million sales since launching on September 12.
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter has suggested that the “iPod touch is the most dangerous thing that ever happened” to game publishers.
Putting major franchises on Apple products cheapens their value, according to Pachter, who also believes that youngsters brought up playing games on iPod touch and iPhone are less likely to graduate to other gaming systems than previous generations of players brought up on arcade titles and Nintendo handhelds.
We continue with our countdown of the best 50 iPhone games on the market at present with numbers 20-11.
Click here for 50-41 >>
Click here for 40-31 >>
Click here for 30-21 >>
For the first time in its 27 year history, polling in the Golden Joystick Awards has reached one million votes.
The virtual ballot box is set to close at midday on Monday, October 26, so you still have eleven days to register your vote, which you can do here.
The categories for this year’s awards are:
Family Game of the Year
Bliss Magazine Handheld Game of the Year
The MSN Multiplayer Game of the Year
The ShortList One to Watch
Capcom, Nintendo and 53 DS software manufacturers have filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against four companies alleged to have been importing and selling the R4 Revolution game copying device.
The firms are seeking an injunction to block the distribution of such devices as well as damage compensation.
In February, the court ruled in favour of the game companies and made it illegal to import and sell the R4. But Capcom said in a statement that game copying devices are still widely available, leading the companies to take legal action.
A number of reports suggest that Electronic Arts has quietly acquired social game developer Playfish for $250 million.
SouthPeak Interactive has reported a net loss of $12.1 million (£7.6m) for the year ended June 30, 2009, compared to a net income of $1.5 million (£940,000) the previous year.
Revenues were up 18 per cent to $47.4 million (£29.7m) as the publisher doubled annual software unit sales to 2.4 million.
As of June 30, SouthPeak had approximately $12.5 million invested in game development, with over 30 intellectual properties in the works.
Sky Player, Sky’s online TV service, will be introduced to Xbox Live in late October, Microsoft has confirmed.
“October 27 - that's the date when you'll be able to watch TV from Sky on your Xbox 360,” said Graeme Boyd, Microsoft Europe's Xbox community manager.
California-based semiconductor firm Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has reportedly secured a deal to create the graphics processor for Microsoft’s next Xbox.
Tech site Fudzilla claims that the platform holder was happy with the Xbox 360's ATI-built Xenos GPU and keen to partner with the firm again for its next console. AMD merged with ATI Technologies in 2006 in a $5.4 billion deal.
We continue with our countdown of the best 50 iPhone games on the market at present with numbers 30-21.
Click here for 50-41 >>
Click here for 40-31 >>
Click here for 20-11 >>
30. Wurdle
Graphics chip firm Nvidia has reportedly won a contract to provide technology for a next-gen Nintendo handheld.
Citing anonymous sources, IT news site BSN reports that Nvidia will supply a “Tegra system-on-chip processor” for the successor to the DS/DSi.
The site suggests that the new handheld will launch in late 2010, featuring “smarter” graphics and likely DS backwards compatibility.
Changes to Australia’s classification process appear set to allow online-only games to receive ratings for the first time.
Up until recently, massively multiplayer online games weren’t rated by Australia’s Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC). Titles like World Of Warcraft were deemed unclassifiable because they didn’t fit the organisation’s definition of computer games.
Having just returned from the Handheld Learning Festival I thought I would share some thoughts about what I saw and what we brought to the festival.
There was a range of thought provoking and interesting speakers from Professor James Paul Gee, author of “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy”(2003) and “Good Video Games and Good Learning: Collected Essays” (2007)
Through personal reflections on education by Zenna Atkins, the Non-Executive Chairman of Ofsted, to Malcolm McLaren, artist and pop culture icon, as well as a host of others.
As well as these keynotes I also managed to hear John Davitt talk of the tools and technology available to teachers and his desire that we use these tools more productively. I was also delighted to see Tim Rylands, he of MYST fame, show work he has been undertaking with children using Wild Earth:African Safari.
Perhaps the highlight, for me anyway, was to be involved with the Spotlight Scotland Breakout, hosted by Learning and Teaching Scotland. It was standing room only for a series of 30 minute bursts of great practice and innovation in Scottish Education. Katie Barrowman gave a great presentation on GLOW which highlighted GLOW meet and the power of sharing, Derek Robertson introduced CANVAS (Children’s Art at the National Virtual Arena of Scotland) to the appreciative audience. My presentation was on the work undertaken by children in Clackmannan Primary and their teacher Morag Clark. You can watch a version of this below.
After a short break Lisa Sorbie from Perth High School showcased work an S1 class had undertaken with Hotel Dusk:Room 215, some great writing in the noir genre. Anna Rossvoll from Aberdeenshire showed the power of GLOW meet and Wii music introducing, live, a class from Peterhead who spoke to and performed for the audience in London. Ollie Bray concluded the session with a great presentation on the power of free tools for teachers. You can click this link for more on Ollie’s presentation.
The new Modern Warfare 2 trailer promises to take the fight not just to modern times, but to the streets of the American capital, where war breaks out in sight of the White House. But here’s what’s funny about that: this summer, small clutches of angry Americans fantasized about shooting up the city for real.
Format: PS3
Release: Out now
Publisher: SCE
Developer: Naughty Dog
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