News
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Next week Samwise to you?
The European free-to-play relaunch of The Lord of the Rings Online will happen on Tuesday, 2nd November, Eurogamer can exclusively reveal.
Mandatory monthly subscriptions will be dropped and replaced by three tiers of membership – VIP (has a monthly fee), Premium and Free – and a LOTRO Store. There you can buy expansion packs, premium add-ons, thousands of convenience items, additional character slots, potions and character customisation options. The LOTRO Store works within the game.
The free-to-play overhaul introduces other new features, too: a new Wardrobe storage system for cosmetic items, an updated character creation system, a revamped new player experience and redesign for the vintage dungeons of the world, which will become not only repeatable, but feature scalable content to keep the challenge fresh.
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Strong demand for 360 consoles and games a major factor in year-on-year increase in revenue.Microsoft has posted its first-quarter financial report for the period ending September 30. Overall, the company’s income before tax was $7.12 billion, a 59 per cent increase on the same period last year.
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Capcom’s head of research and development leaves post after 23-year run; will be replaced by Katsuhiko Ichii.
Keiji Inafune may have had a long stint at Japanese developer Capcom, but today the producer of Onimusha and Dead Rising decided to finally call it quits. The 23-year veteran, who rose through the ranks from graphic designer to become the publisher-developer’s head of research and development, announced his departure on his blog, saying he will “resign later this month.”
Inafune originally joined Capcom as a graphic designer, working on the first Street Fighter. He went on to create the character design for Mega Man and then worked on the game’s many sequels before graduating to the role of producer on subsequent entries in the series. More recently, Inafune produced the Onimusha, Lost Planet, and Dead Rising franchises.
Inafune has been outspoken about his games, Capcom, and development in general. Earlier this year, he told the New York Times, “I look around the Tokyo Game Show, and everyone’s making awful games; Japan is at least five years behind.” He also stated, “I want to make games that travel overseas, but Capcom hasn’t taken globalization seriously.”
Inafune oversaw Capcom’s move to outsourcing its franchises to Western developers, including Swedish studio GRIN for Bionic Commando and Canada-based Blue Castle, (now Capcom Game Studio Vancouver), for Dead Rising 2.
Inafune’s resignation comes the day after Capcom released its latest financial report, which contained a mix of good and bad news for the company. While Dead Rising 2 has sold 1.8 million copies, Lost Planet 2’s weak performance helped cause a net profit slide of 1.78 billion ($22 million), down 39.9 percent over April-September the previous year.
Speaking with GameSpot, Capcom said it will restructure its development organization following Inafune’s departure. Katsuhiko Ichii will be appointed head of the development organization and will be supported by a new development management team consisting of Nobuyuki Matsushima, Jun Takeuchi, Taichiro Genbun, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, and Shutaro Kobayashi. The new unit will also integrate marketing and development functions from within the company to offer a “broader stroke approach to the development process,” according to Capcom.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“Keiji Inafune resigns from Capcom ” was posted by Guy Cocker on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 06:39:32 -0700 -
Capcom’s head of research and development leaves post after 23-year run; will be replaced by Katsuhiko Ichii.
Keiji Inafune may have had a long stint at Japanese developer Capcom, but today the producer of Onimusha and Dead Rising decided to finally call it quits. The 23-year veteran, who rose through the ranks from graphic designer to become the publisher-developer’s head of research and development, announced his departure on his blog, saying he will “resign later this month.”
Inafune originally joined Capcom as a graphic designer, working on the first Street Fighter. He went on to create the character design for Mega Man and then worked on the game’s many sequels before graduating to the role of producer on subsequent entries in the series. More recently, Inafune produced the Onimusha, Lost Planet, and Dead Rising franchises.
Inafune has been outspoken about his games, Capcom, and development in general. Earlier this year, he told the New York Times, “I look around the Tokyo Game Show, and everyone’s making awful games; Japan is at least five years behind.” He also stated, “I want to make games that travel overseas, but Capcom hasn’t taken globalization seriously.”
Inafune oversaw Capcom’s move to outsourcing its franchises to Western developers, including Swedish studio GRIN for Bionic Commando and Canada-based Blue Castle, (now Capcom Game Studio Vancouver), for Dead Rising 2.
Inafune’s resignation comes the day after Capcom released its latest financial report, which contained a mix of good and bad news for the company. While Dead Rising 2 has sold 1.8 million copies, Lost Planet 2’s weak performance helped cause a net profit slide of 1.78 billion ($22 million), down 39.9 percent over April-September the previous year.
Speaking with GameSpot, Capcom said it will restructure its development organization following Inafune’s departure. Katsuhiko Ichii will be appointed head of the development organization and will be supported by a new development management team consisting of Nobuyuki Matsushima, Jun Takeuchi, Taichiro Genbun, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, and Shutaro Kobayashi. The new unit will also integrate marketing and development functions from within the company to offer a “broader stroke approach to the development process,” according to Capcom.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“Keiji Inafune resigns from Capcom ” was posted by Guy Cocker on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 06:39:32 -0700 -
Is that why Guitar Hero flopped?
Developer Harmonix reckons rival music game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock’s dismal sales might have been down to gamers waiting to buy Rock Band 3.
Warriors of Rock sold just 86,000 copies in its first week in the US, across all formats. The figures represented a serious decline for the series.
It entered the UK all-formats chart at six when it launched last month. Eurogamer’s Johnny Minkley awarded the game a solid 7/10.
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Jun Takeuchi will step up.
Keiji Inafune has decided to quit Capcom at the end of the month. He’s been with the company for 23 years.
The head of R&D management group, consumer games R&D division and contents management division rued having “nowhere higher to go” on his blog (translated by Kotaku).
Inafune added: “I’m leaving Capcom with the intention of starting my life over.” He’s not taking a break but pursuing new challenges from the off. What they are, and who they’ll be for, is unknown.
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Sony’s dogs Move faster than Microsoft’s.
Global sales of PlayStation 3 aren’t far off those of Xbox 360. And Sony is gaining on Microsoft.
The latest numbers (based on sales up to 30th September 2010) show the rival consoles only five million units apart: 39.2 million PlayStation 3s to 44.6 million Xbox 360s.
But globally PlayStation is selling faster: Sony recorded 3.5 million PS3 sales from the start of July to the end of September whereas Microsoft reported 2.8 million Xbox 360 sales.
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Apps-based gaming model is becoming more popular with upcoming television platforms.A new set-top box co-funded by UK television broadcasters including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 will use an app store model to deliver content, including games, to television sets.
The new venture, called YouView, is described by the BBC as “an attempt to develop a standard for internet television services in the UK”, and is seen as the spiritual successor to the Freeview digital set-top boxes.
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One louder.
Here’s what we were picking from: Out This Week.
It was never going to match last week for quality – but the quantity continued as the games industry tipped another skip-load of new releases into the shops in week two of the seasonal rush. And this week, it seemed like there was something in the water.
“Albion! Where everything you touch turns to fun,” sang Tom of Fable III, apparently experimenting with reviewing videogames in the style of an MGM musical. Which was appropriate, considering the spring in this lovely game’s step although unlike Brigadoon, it’s British to the core. It may not be the revolutionary RPG we wanted, but it’s a wonderful place to be, and it’s just for us.
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New Wii title ends the handheld RPG’s five-week rule over the charts.Pokemon Black/White has been knocked off the top of the Japanese software charts by Super Mario All-Stars on Wii for the week ending October 24.
The Wii game, released as part the 25th anniversary celebrations of Super Mario Bros., made its chart debut with 307,755 units sold. Pokemon Black/White sales declined from 168,541 units the previous week to 81,915.