News
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According to Bloomberg, the stock value of social games producer Zynga has surpassed that of Electronic Arts, the second largest video game publisher in the world (behind Activision Blizzard.) The Farmville creators are now valued at $5.51 billion, compared to EA’s $5.22. Both are less than half of Activision Blizzards $13.9 billion, which is itself small compared to Tencent Holdings of China’s $43 billion… …
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Crave Games bringing Samurai Jack, Ben10, PowerPuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, and more together on Nintendo portable next spring; Xbox 360, PS3, Wii versions to follow in holiday season.
If there’s one thing crossover games have made absolutely clear, it’s that licensed characters’ first instinct upon meeting each other is usually to engage in fisticuffs. So it will be with the stars of Cartoon Network’s lineup of original TV shows, as Crave Games today announced that it will be publishing a crossover “battle game” featuring the stars of Ben 10 Ultimate Alien, The PowerPuff Girls, and more.
The as-yet untitled game is scheduled for a spring 2011 launch on Nintendo’s 3DS handheld, to go along with the system’s North American release. Console versions of the game are expected to follow on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii during the holiday season.
Crave announced Papaya Studio as the game’s developer. Although the studio is best known of late for developing games like Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction and Ben 10: Alien Force Vilgax Attack, it didn’t always stick to family-friendly fare. Papaya was also the announced developer of Majesco Games’ ill-fated adaptation of the classic Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver.
A list of the already-announced Cartoon Network shows represented in the game follows below:
Ben 10 Ultimate Alien
Chowder
Codename: Kids Next Door
Dexter’s Laboratory
Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends
Samurai Jack
The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
The PowerPuff GirlsRead and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“Cartoon Network crossover fighter brawls on 3DS” was posted by Brendan Sinclair on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:56:49 -0700 -
First game in series with “hardcore” features.
The new Mortal Kombat is the first game in the series to be targeted at serious beat ’em up fans, reckons series created Ed Boon.
In an interview with Shack News, Boon said, “This is the first Mortal Kombat game where we are consciously putting in features for the hardcore/tournament fighters and we have some amazing fighting game ‘experts’ playing our game and giving us constant feedback.”
“This version of Mortal Kombat has more depth in terms of gameplay than the previous games,” he added. “We’ve put in a lot of thought on how to make this game accessible to the casual gamer and at the same time add enough depth that it keeps the more advanced players challenged.”
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New features announced too.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood’s beta phase seems to have had the desired effect, with Ubisoft announcing that it’s made a long list of tweaks following user feedback.
The changes detailed on Sony’s EU PlayStation blog – listed in full below – include improved matchmaking and new visual and audio effects.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood sneaks onto PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 from 19th November. Eurogamer’s Simon Parkin recently went hands-on with Ezio’s new adventure.
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New Move control scheme, bosses added.
No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise an HD revamp of Suda51’s Wii action adventure will hit US stores in 2011 with Move compatibility and new content.
Originally published by Rising Star in the UK and Ubisoft in the US, Konami has taken over the reins this time out.
For the uninitiated, No More Heroes sees you guide arch-jerk Travis Touchdown to the top of Santa Destroy’s assassin leaderboard, by slicing your way though hordes of goons with a glowing neon sword.
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GTA publisher changes earnings report schedule to better align behind industry seasonality, improve comparability with peers.
Take-Two still won’t be following the calendar year to report its yearly earnings, but it will at least be moving more in line with other gaming companies. This week, the publisher announced that its board of directors had approved a fiscal year-end change from October 31 to March 31, meaning its fourth quarter will close on the same day as companies such as Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, and Sony.
According to Take-Two, the change is meant to better align its fiscal periods with the seasonality of the gaming business, which traditionally sees the most activity during the October-December quarter. Take-Two also expressed an interest in improving its “comparability with industry peers.”
Take-Two’s desire to go apples-to-apples with its competitors is understandable, considering the string of positive earnings reports this year. Thanks to a standout performance from Red Dead Redemption, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick touted in September that the company was on track to achieve its first profitable year without the release of a major new Grand Theft Auto in almost a decade.
The profitability comes despite the delay of two high-profile titles, L.A. Noire and Max Payne 3. Originally announced by Team Bondi in 2005, L.A. Noire is now expected to see release sometime in the first half of calendar 2011. Rockstar Vancouver’s Max Payne 3 had previously been expected to ship later this year. Take-Two now expects the game to launch outside of its in-progress fiscal year.
Of course, the publisher also continues to benefit from Rockstar’s notorious open-world action adventure. In June, Take-Two said that GTAIV had sold 17 million units since its then-record-setting launch in April 2009.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“Take-Two moving fiscal year-end to March” was posted by Tom Magrino on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:23:07 -0700 -
Stand-alone Undead Nightmare release includes all four add-ons and multiplayer free roam modes, will sell on Xbox 360 and PS3 for $30.
Get the full article at GameSpot
“Red Dead Redemption DLC hits retail Nov. 23” was posted by Brendan Sinclair on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:59:02 -0700 -
Raptr statistics indicate reboot of EA’s signature series didn’t dent online play of rival shooters.
Two weeks ago, Electronic Arts released its reboot of Medal of Honor, which transported the once World War II-exclusive franchise into the ongoing Afghanistan war. The game was the subject of controversy from its inception, given that it initially allowed players to play as the Taliban in multiplayer mode. Though that option was removed at the last minute, the game’s mixed reviews were blamed for a one-day, 6 percent drop in EA stock.
Last week, EA hit back, revealing the game had sold 1.5 million copies worldwide,
generating over $100 million dollars. Now, online game service (and GameSpot partner) Raptr has released play statistics garnered from its millions of users that show how the game was played–and how it stacked up against rivals in the first-person shooter genre.According to Raptr’s study, which used data from the Xbox 360 version of the game, Medal of Honor did not disrupt play time patterns in other popular shooters–a trend Raptr described as “unheard of.” Not only did Medal of Honor’s launch fail to put a dent in Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2’s online play time, those shooters’ average play times went up during the EA effort’s first week on the market. By contrast, when Halo: Reach launched, Modern Warfare 2 play time dropped by 40 percent and Bad Company 2 play time dropped by 50 percent. When Bad Company 2 launched, it took 20 percent of play time away from Modern Warfare 2, according to Raptr.
Raptr also found that Medal of Honor was played an average of 3.93 hours during its launch week. By comparison, 4.31 hours of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 were played during launch week, versus 6.17 hours of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and 6.19 hours of Halo: Reach.
Raptr, which also tracks achievement data, found that the roughly the same number of players completed Medal of Honor (35 percent) as did Halo: Reach (37 percent) in single-player mode in the game’s first week on the market. The game’s week-one multiplayer stats were also in line with Bad Company 2 and Halo: Reach, with between 61 and 62 percent of all players spending at least 15 minutes playing multiplayer mode.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“Modern Warfare 2, Halo: Reach MP unfazed by Medal of Honor launch” was posted by Staff on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:53:59 -0700 -
Anniversary of October 26, 2000, US and Canadian launch sees aging console’s sales top 146 million.
Old-school gamers will feel a little older today. One week after the NES console celebrated its 25th anniversary in the US market, the PlayStation is marking 10 years since it launched in North America. The system went on sale domestically on October 26, 2000, over seven months after it debuted in Japan on March 4. The system went on sale in Europe on November 24 of that year.
Since its initial launch, the PlayStation 2 has gone on to sell over 146 million units worldwide. At the time of its launch, it was a cutting-edge machine, sporting DVD playback and then high-end graphics for $300. The high price point didn’t deter customers in the slightest, though, with retailers selling out of the console in a matter of hours. Hardware manufacturing bottlenecks kept the unit in short supply for months after release, with Sony only selling 1.3 million units in the US by the end of 2000.
The PS2’s long tenure saw it get several hardware peripherals, including an online gameplay add-on, the PlayStation Network Adapter, in 2002. The system was also augmented by the release of the EyeToy Camera in 2003. Software franchises that flourished on the system included Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, and Grand Theft Auto, which debuted exclusively on Sony’s console from Grand Theft Auto III to San Andreas.
Some 10 years on, the PS2 now costs just $100 and sells so few units each month the NPD Group ceased tracking hardware sales of the console earlier this year. (The NPD Group ceased releasing all hardware figures last month.) However, that’s not stopping Sony from continuing to push the device. Last week, it announced it would include a copy of Toy Story 3 with the console starting on October 31.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“PS2 celebrates 10 years in North America” was posted by Tor Thorsen on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:39:51 -0700 -
Anniversary of October 26, 2000 US and Canadian launch sees aging console’s sales top 146 million.
Old-school gamers will feel a little older today. One week after the NES console celebrated its 25th anniversary in the US market, the PlayStation is marking 10 years since it launched in North America. The system went on sale domestically on October 26, 2000, over seven months after it debuted in Japan on March 4. The system went on sale in Europe on November 24 of that year.
Since its initial launch, the PS2 has gone on to sell over 146 million units worldwide. At the time of its launch, it was a cutting-edge machine, sporting DVD playback and then high-end graphics for $300. The high price point didn’t deter customers in the slightest, though, with retailers selling out of the console in a matter of hours. Hardware manufacturing bottlenecks kept the unit in short supply for months after release, with Sony only selling 1.3 million units in the US by the end of 2000.
The PS2’s long tenure saw it get several hardware peripherals, including an online gameplay add-on, the PlayStation Network Adapter, in 2002. The system was also augmented by the release of the EyeToy Camera in 2003. Software franchises that flourished on the system included Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, and Grand Theft Auto, which debuted exclusively on Sony’s console from Grand Theft Auto III to San Andreas.
Some 10 years on, the PS2 now costs just $100, and sells so few units each month the NPD Group ceased tracking hardware sales of the console earlier this year. (The NPD Group ceased releasing all hardware figures last month.) However, that’s not stopping Sony from continuing to push the device. Last week, it announced it would include a copy of Toy Story 3 with the console starting on October 31.
Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
“PS2 celebrates 10 years in North America” was posted by Tor Thorsen on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:39:51 -0700