Archive for the ‘News’ Category
By: Jon Christensen on October 22nd, 2009 pm31 1:15 pm
Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, had a chance to sit down with Gizmodo and discuss the future of the Xbox brand. During the interview, Ballmer was asked if one day we would see a Blu-ray drive included with the Xbox 360. While it didn’t seem likely that one would be packaged with a new system, he did reveal something rather interesting. “Well I don’t know if we need to put Blu-ray in there [Xbox 360]—you’ll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories,” he told the website.
What does he mean? You could definitely interpret what he was trying to convey is that Microsoft is going to sell separately a Blu-ray accessory, much like they did with the now defunct HDDVD-drives. If this is the case, I’m pretty sure it was a slip-up. While he might have just admitted that a Blu-ray player was coming to the Xbox 360, he wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about the idea. Right after he spoke about these “drives,” he than proceeded to talk about the future of movies is not Blu-ray and he believes its on-demand, as well as digital downloads — an opinion I happen to agree with as well.
To watch the interview, click here.
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By: Jon Christensen on July 28th, 2009 am31 1:22 am
James Wan wrote and directed the original Saw film. The series is ever going and has grossed over $600 million worldwide. Later this year, Konami expects to ship a videogame version of the movies. Basically, Wan has started a successful franchise.
Now, James Wan has confirmed on his myspace blog that he is going to direct the film adaption of the famous videogame Castlevania.
“I haven’t blogged in awhile, and I will keep this short. Yes, for those that who have been asking, it has been announced that CASTLEVANIA is one of my next projects. It’s still early on, but I’m truly excited about this project, and i think it will allow me to showcase aside of my film-making that I love – designs and visual. The world of Castlevania is so rich and beautiful, coupled with a great premise and lush characters…I’m honored to be shepherding this.”
After Wan directed the Saw series, he went on to do the same for two more movies, Death Silence and Death Sentence. Both films were not met with the best reviews and currently hold a 17% and 19% on rottentomatoes, respectively. However, on IMDB user scores, both films are getting at least a 6/10.
Essentially, if you like these films already and love the Castlevania series — this is great news. However, if your in love Castlevania’s adaption of Dracula but hate Wan’s films, you might want to think about protesting this one.
via: /film
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By: Nick Collins on July 27th, 2009 pm31 12:32 pm
Eagle Eye director D.J. Caruso is set to hit the director’s chair for the big screen adaptation of the Electronic Arts hit, Dead Space. There is no script as of this time, but the films producers and EA hope to have a writer and concept set by September so they can begin to hunt out a buying studio.
“‘Dead Space’ becomes the fifth EA title to percolate as a feature property. Aside from the “Dante’s Inferno” film that will be produced by Strike Entertainment partners Eric Newman and Marc Abraham, EA is in business with Universal on “Army of Two,” with Scott Z. Burns (”The Bourne Ultimatum”) scripting and Scott Stuber producing. EA’s “The Sims” is being developed by producer John Davis and “Mass Effect” by “Spider-Man” producer Avi Arad.”
It’s hard for me to look forward to films taken from video games, due to the history of their quality, but I’m going to put my hopes in this one. The team that will put this movie together should take some heavy notes on the visuals EA used, which made Dead Space such a complete enjoyment. (Read our Dead Space review HERE)
Source: Variety
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By: Jon Christensen on July 20th, 2009 pm31 3:42 pm
Empire has an exclusive first look at the UK posters for the film adaption of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Disney, who is distributor of the film, is definitely taking an unique spin to promote the film and not the obvious summer videogame blockbuster film ads we would have expected.
Is it just me, or do they remind you also of a magazine cover, and less a Jerry Brickheimer film? Either way I like it, and it gives me hope that this movie will be a little more serious than some of the other crappy videogame inspired films we’ve seen in year’s past.
If you don’t know by the name alone, the movie is using the story line of the great 2003 hit, Prince of Persia, which followed the Prince and a dagger he used to control time. I for one thought the title was easily one of the best titles to come out for that generation. The game was released for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Gamecube.
Thanks to /film.
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By: Jon Christensen on June 10th, 2009 am30 10:44 am
Thanks to the magazine Game Informer, details for Rockstar’s upcoming Max Payne 3 has started to trickle down to the Internets. The publication is reporting that Max has started to go further into his depression. The ex-cop is now bald, has facial hair, and is now addicted to pain killers — which according to the magazine will somehow affect the gameplay. Judging by the cover of Game Informer, Max Payne now reminds me of a cross between the newly bearded Sam Fisher and the bald headed/white tank-top wearing John McClane, of the Die Hard series.
This time around, instead of exploring the gritty streets of New York City, Payne finds himself in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Early reports suggest that Max decided to move away from NYC, where is child and wife were both killed, which was portrayed in the first game.
Game Informer is impressed with the visual style and they even compared it to the beautiful looking game, Uncharted 2. Not only does the game supposedly look gorgeous, but the environments are described as fully-destructible. This is all done because Rockstar is using their in-house engine called RAGE, which has already been used for Grand Theft Auto IV and more recently Midnight Club: Los Angeles.
A big chunk of the videogame will take place in ghetto Brazilian urban areas, where large gunfights will take place. And yes, the Max Payne signature bullet time is back. Not only that, but a brand new cover system will debut with the action title, which seems like a standard for shooters of late. Deeko, who has the mag, said Game Informer is promising the title to be ultra-violent and maybe even more so than its predecessors.
We should also expect to see some kind of multiplayer for Max Payne 3 when it hit store shelves, which is a first for the series. I could definitely see Rockstar creating something very innovative for multiplayer — especially with the bullet time.
Rockstar hopes that they can ship the next incarnation of Max Payne before the end of the year and made available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.
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By: Derek Matias on June 5th, 2009 pm30 12:11 pm
Armed with leaflets and picket signs, the Salvationists Against Virtual and Eternal Damnation or SAVED for short, protested outside of the LA Convention Center during E3 on Wednesday. They were their protesting EA’s adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s The Inferno, the first part of three in the epic poem The Divine Comedy. They held signs that read, “EA =Electronic ANTI-Chirst”, “Play Dante’s Inferno, Go to Hell”, “Hell is not a game”, “Trade in your Playstaion for a PRAYstation”, “My high score is in Heaven”, and my favorite “JUST SAY infer-NO!!!”.
The group even has their own website to protest the game. WeAreSavedGroup.org outlines the groups message as to why you should not play Dante’s Inferno. But the site is the quintessential ’horrible site’ with no document title, varying text colors and sizes and lots of animated GIFs. And of course the site and the cheesy posters made many wonder if these protesters were actually real.
Unfortunately according to the AP, the protest was staged. Which leads us to ask the question, If a protest is staged are the protesters lying? And if they are lying, will they go to Hell?
Source Image Via: BigDownload.com
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By: Jon Christensen on June 3rd, 2009 am30 12:40 am
When game designer Hideo Kojima took the stage at the Xbox 360 briefing, he confirmed that Metal Gear Solid: Rising was coming to the Microsoft console. It was a bit of a surprise because Sony repeatedly suggested that the series would only be able to play on a PS3. After the conference, reports started to emerge that Rising would be an Xbox 360 exclusive, living the PlayStation 3 in the dark.
Luckily for owners of the Sony console, this isn’t the case. Journalist and TV host Geoff Keighley, tweeted that he spoke with SCEA head honcho Jack Tretton. According to Tretton, the PS3 will have Metal Gear Solid: Rising available the same time as the 360 launch.
“Spoke to Tretton – he confirmed Metal Gear Rising is absolutely coming to PS3 alongside Xbox 360.”
So, PS3 ‘fanboys’ can now relax knowing their going to also be able to play the next installment of Metal Gear. Which makes sense for Konami. Why at this point in the gaming industry would you make a popular game like MGS and alienate 25+ million people?
This isn’t a victory for either Sony or Microsoft. The true winner is Konami.
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By: Derek Matias on June 1st, 2009 am30 12:40 am
Starting June 30th, Blockbuster will be rolling out a pilot for an online game rental service in the Cleveland area for their customers. The Vice President and general manager of Blockbuster.com, Bob Barr, said that the pilot “allows us to test a variety of implementation details and gather invaluable key learning and consumer insights before finalizing and launching a national online game rental offering.” This could be a potential breakthrough for the video game rental market as the only company that is really doing this now is GameFly.com.
The way the pilot is running, makes customers pay more to rent games, but they only have to pay during the months that they rent games. Customers could get one game at a time and each rental would count towards whatever total amount of rentals their existing plan allowed. In addition Total Access subscribers would still be able to exchange their games in-store in addition to getting them in the mail. If the pilot goes well you can expect to see the service expanded nation wide by the end of the year with any adjustments that needed to be made.
Source: homemediamagazine.com
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By: Jon Christensen on May 29th, 2009 am31 4:35 am
Last year, struggling Atari shocked the industry by hiring former head of Sony Worldwide Studios Phil Harrison. Harrison took the role as president of the company, in hopes to make the name relevant once again.
Today, the company has announced in their fiscal report, that he is no longer the president:
“Because of a shift of business operations to the US, Phil Harrison will move from the role of President to that of non-executive Director of the Group. As all Board members, he will continue to assist, support and guide the Company’s strategy.”
In what capacity and how much power Harrison has, if any, is unknown. While the company says they had a “shift of business operations” and that is why he is no longer an executive, makes it sound more like they had pushed him aside. Of course, that is nothing but pure speculation on our part.
We should also mention that Atari sounds like they could be dealing with some financial trouble. Earlier in the year, the company bought the rights to publish Ghostbusters: The Video Game, only later to sell the property to Sony, to make it a PS3 timed-exclusive in Europe. Not only that, Atari had purchased space for E3 2009, than abruptly announced that they would no longer be attending, weeks before the show.
As of now, Atari has yet to name a replacement.
Source: Kotaku
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By: Jon Christensen on May 18th, 2009 pm31 10:31 pm
Remember those photos last week about the apparent Slim PlayStation 3 pictures that were supposedly taken from a Chinese factory? The tech site Engadget, was one of the first sites on the Internet to report these alleged PS3 slim images and now they have been served with a cease and desist to remove the photos.
While Engadget has reported the cease and desist, they cautioned that this does not mean a slim PS3 is on the way. The letter to remove the photos did not come directly from Sony, but a factory in China. From what it sounds like, these images were snapped inside a Chinese manufacturer and that company sounds kinda pissed that they have been leaked.
“We just find that the following web pages on your website contain some confidential document and photos, which were highly possibly illegally released and posted,” the document reads. “We are investigating this violation and will bring all necessary legal actions regarding this matter. In order to protect the confidential information and prevent you from further legal issues and infringements, please immediately remove those pages and keep our request confidential. If you have any question regarding this issue, please feel free to contact us. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.”
Oddly enough, the pictures have already leaked across the internet. Pretty much any website that reports news about the video game industry, has already posted the same photos,
Again we don’t want to jump to conclusion that the cease and desist proves that a little PS3 is own its way, but it certainly helps the theory than hurt it. I guess we will all know soon enough when Sony holds their annual E3 press conference.
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By: Jon Christensen on May 18th, 2009 pm31 4:23 pm
According to the remaining executives over at 3D Realms, they are insisting that their studio is not closing, but regrouping and becoming a “much smaller studio“. It was reported by pretty much every video game blog/website that the company, which was founded in 1987 was shutting its doors for good because Take-Two was no longer funding the studio.
“Despite rumors and statements to the contrary, 3D Realms (3DR) has not closed and is not closing,” read in a statement. “3DR retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise. Due to lack of funding, however, we are saddened to confirm that we let the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) development team go on May 6th, while we regroup as a company. While 3DR is a much smaller studio now, we will continue to operate as a company and continue to license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise.”
Last week, Take-Two announced what they ‘thought’ was a defunct company owed the publisher money, which was reported as high as $12 million because of cash that was supposedly given to 3D Realms to complete the infamous Duke Nukem Forever. However, 3D Realms seems to disagree with Take-Two, and has responded to the lawsuit:
“Take-Two never paid 3DR advances or any signing bonus or any other funds related to DNF, up until July 2008, at which time they paid $2.5m in connection with another agreement for an unannounced game,” it read. “This is the sum total Take-Two has paid 3DR in connection with DNF.”
Just last week, 3D Realms all but confirmed that the studio was closing because of a post on their website. The post had a picture (above) of the employees of the studio and up top read “goodbye”, and a quick snippet was written suggesting that 3D Realms had indeed closed forever: “Thanks for being fans and for all your support.”
source: Shacknews
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By: Jon Christensen on May 14th, 2009 pm31 4:22 pm
Just a quick update on the whole PlayStation 3 redesign, thanks in-part to China. First, I want to mention that Sony is still denying anything that has to do with a PS3 maker over.
Now with that said, a Chinese gaming forum posted these pictures suggesting they are faculty leaked images of a new box for the PS3 as well as the new case. If these pictures hold true, than it is obvious Sony is planning on announcing a new design and perhaps confirm it as early as E3. It will even support a 120GB hard-drive.
I’m still skeptical and honestly, is it me or does that ’system’ just scream fake. If they are indeed real, than Sony has just created the ugliest looking console known to man. It reminds me of what a child in the 70s would think up, if he was ask to make a future console and how he thinks it would look.
Also, what is up with the unattractive PS3 font change? Hopefully these tacky changes also are followed by a price drop — the system is going to need it, if it is real.
After the jump, see more images (more…)
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By: Derek Matias on May 13th, 2009 pm31 8:57 pm
(Scott Macmillan of Macguffin Games showed off a prototype of his upcoming RPG titled Heritage)
On Monday we gave you Part 1 of our IGC East coverage. Today we are bringing you Part 2, a highlight on Scott Macmillan and Macguffin Games‘ project Heritage.
Heritage by Macguffin Games was one of the few games that grabbed my attention during demo night. I had a chance to talk with the founder, Scott Macmillan who feels very strong about the game and has a clear plan for it. At demo night Macmillan showed off a gameplay prototype. At this point the demo was mostly the structure to better explain the mechanics of the game.
(more…)
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By: Derek Matias on May 11th, 2009 pm31 12:40 pm
May 7th and 8th marked this year’s IGC East conference. The conference, as described by their website, is:
…for developers of console, flash and casual games who want a leg up on the competition and for the publishers who want to see the hottest games in development by the rising stars of the industry.
Over the two days these Independent developers get to meet with other indy developers as well as listen to panels and keynote presentations ranging in topics from “Focus Testing – Making games that people other than you like” to “How to maximize PR for your game”.
(more…)
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By: Derek Matias on March 17th, 2009 am31 9:30 am
This afternoon GameTap.com expanded their selection of free games to over 500. The announcement came from the site’s Facebook page. If you don’t know already GameTap is a paid games on demand service where you can play over a thousand games on your PC or Mac, and with this latest addition many more from your web browser. As of right now these new free games can only be played in Internet Explorer 6 or 7, but will hopefully be extended to FireFox or Safari for Mac users. GameTap released these games while they get ready for their new site. The games are only available until June 12th, presumably when the new site will launch. You can play the games here.
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