Archive for November 9th, 2007
November 9, 2007
Capcom today reported earnings for the six months ending on September 30, 2007, and the numbers painted a mixed picture. On one hand, revenues for the period increased 6.6 percent year-over-year to total ¥31.1 billion ($276.3 million), thanks to stronger than expected sales of Monster Hunter 2 and Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition.
On the other hand, the company’s ¥1.6 billion ($14.2 million) in net income was a 16.3 percent decrease from the same period in 2006. One of the biggest culprits was a dramatic fall in Capcom’s arcade game revenue, which plummeted 68.9 percent from ¥4.3 billion ($38.2 million) to ¥1.4 billion ($12.4 million) during the six month period.
“Consumer game software is one of our core business segments, and the favorable performance of this segment played a leading role in overall sales growth,” the company said in a statement. For the full year ending March 31, 2008, it expects ¥78 billion ($693.1 million) in net revenue and ¥6.2 billion ($55 million) in net income, up from ¥74.5 billion ($661.8 million) and 5.9 billion ($52.4 million) the prior fiscal year.
The decline in profit was in part due to the fact that one of Capcom’s biggest hits of calendar 2007, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition for the 360, launched during its last fiscal year on January 12, 2007. The PC version went on sale June 26, during its current fiscal year but only sold 12,620 units as of August 31 in the US, according to the NPD Group. (By comparison, the 360 version sold 652,951 copies.)
Despite the poor performance of the PC Lost Planet, Capcom plans on launching a PlayStation 3 version of the game in the first three months of 2008. This week also saw further evidence of a sequel–or spin off–to the sci-fi shooter surface in Europe. The Underhaltungselbskontrolle (USK)–Germany’s answer to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board–now has a listing for an Xbox 360 third-person shooter called “Lost Planet Colonies.” The game is rated as being suitable for gamers 16 years of age or older.
If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Capcom trademarked the title “Lost Planet Colonies” earlier this year with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. On September 18, the trademark was granted for “video game software,” but no details about platform or genre were given. Contradicting rumors peg the game as either a straight sequel to Lost Planet or a spin-off centering on tactical combat. Capcom has not commented on the rumors, but company representatives have publicly said a sequel is likely.
November 9, 2007
With the November release calendar jam-packed with big releases, Sony Computer Entertainment America this morning released its full holiday 2007 lineup of expected games and add-ons for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation 2.
While many of the nearly 100 retail and downloadable games listed for Sony systems are already out, these are the titles Sony is using to demonstrate “a continued commitment from both SCEA and third-party developers to the PlayStation family of products and aims to appeal to enthusiast and casual gamers alike.” Divided by platform, Sony’s latest console gets the most attention in the holiday lineup with 34 retail games and 13 downloadable titles. The PSP list includes two dozen games, slightly behind the PS2’s showing of 27 titles.
As with Nintendo’s first- and third-party release list from last month, some of SCEA’s entries didn’t fit with what had previously been known. For instance, SCEA lists Unreal Tournament 3 for the PS3 as releasing this year, when Midway has told its investors the game shouldn’t arrive until 2008. A Midway representative told If Its Games today that the company still expects Unreal Tournament 3 for the PS3 to see release next year.
[UPDATE]: Epic Games vice president Mark Rein told If Its Games that Unreal Tournament 3 was in “really good shape,” and might yet make it to shelves this year.
“We did a pre-certification check last week and came back with a surprisingly small number of issues,” Rein said. “But we don’t want to be over-confident and say it is a sure thing. We still have to do a more thorough certification and things might not flesh out quite as well with a deeper test but the game is truly fantastic on PS3 so our fingers are crossed! Whether we make December or not, the good news for us and our licensees is that we’ve leaped a major engine hurdle on PS3 and we’ve hit that solid ‘version 1.0′ state we hit with Gears of War at that same one-year-after-console-release time frame.” [END UPDATE]
Likewise, Capcom’s Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law for the PSP appears on SCEA’s lineup, but that game was officially delayed until January specifically to avoid the crowded holiday release window. The PS2 version was also delayed, but is not included on SCEA’s holiday list.
[UPDATE]: A Capcom representative has since confirmed that Harvey Birdman is set for release on the PS2, PSP, and Wii on January 8.
PlayStation 3
First-Party:
The Eye of Judgment
Heavenly Sword
NBA 08
Lair
Folklore
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
Warhawk
Third-Party:
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Activision
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Activision
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, Activision
Jericho, Codemasters
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Eidos
FIFA 08, EA
Medal of Honor Airborne, EA
Rock Band, EA
The Orange Box, EA
The Simpsons Game, EA
Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War, Koei
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Lucas Arts
BlackSite: Area 51, Midway
John Woo Presents Stranglehold Collector’s Edition, Midway
Unreal Tournament 3, Midway
Time Crisis 4, Namco Bandai
Sega Rally Revo, Sega
College Hoops 2K8, Take 2 Interactive
WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008, THQ
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights, THQ
MX vs. ATV Untamed, THQ
Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft
Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII, Ubisoft
Haze, Ubisoft
TimeShift, Vivendi
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion-Game of the Year Edition, Zenimax
PlayStation Network
High Velocity Bowling
PAIN
Everyday Shooter
Go! Sports Ski
Go! Sports Skydiving
Mesmerize 1
Trials of Topoq
Toy Home
Twisted Metal 2 (PS One)
Operation Creature Feature
Aquatopia
Snakeball
PixelJunk Monsters
MotorStorm Christmas Livery
MotorStorm Premium Pack 2
Resistance: Fall of Man: Map Pack 2
flOw Download Pack
MotorStorm Vehicle and Livery Pack
Folklore Download Packs 1 and 2
PlayStation Portable:
First-party:
Jeanne d’Arc
NBA ‘08
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike
Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow
Third-party:
Spider-Man 3, Activision
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, Activision
Atari Classics Evolved, Atari
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Capcom
Ben 10: Protector of Earth, D3
FIFA 08, EA
The Sims 2 Castaway, EA
The Simpsons Game, EA
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, Konami
Silent Hill Origins, Konami
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus, Konami
Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron, Lucas Arts
Sonic Rivals 2, Sega
The Golden Compass, Sega
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Square Enix
WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008, THQ
MX vs. ATV Untamed, THQ
Beowulf, Ubisoft
SWAT: Target Liberty, Vivendi
Aliens vs. Predator Requiem, Vivendi
PlayStation 2:
First-Party:
Buzz! The Mega Quiz
Buzz! Junior: Jungle Party
Hot Shots Tennis
NBA ‘08
SingStar: Amped
SingStar ’80s
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
Third-Party:
Cabela’s Monster Bass, Activision
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Activision
Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, Activision
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Atari
High School Musical: Sing It, Disney
Need for Speed ProStreet, EA
Rock Band, EA
Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Zombie Ninja Pro-Am, Midway
.hack//G.U. Vol. 3: Redemption, Namco Bandai
PopCap Hits! Vol 1, PopCap
Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus, Sega
Fatal Fury Battle Archives Volume 2, SNK
Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the Goddess, Square-Enix
College Hoops 2K8, Take 2
Avatar: The Last Airbender — The Burning Earth, THQ
SpongeBob’s Atlantis SquarePants, THQ
MX vs. ATV Untamed, THQ
Crash of the Titans, Vivendi
The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night, Vivendi
Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal, Warner Bros.
November 9, 2007
Last month, Capcom confirmed a delay for Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, the debut game for Cartoon Network’s courtroom comedy series. Instead of launching for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Wii in mid-November as originally announced, the game was being bumped back to 2008. The stated reason for the change was to avoid some of this year’s cutthroat competition on game retailers’ new-release shelves.
At the time, Capcom would only confirm a January release for Harvey Birdman, but today a representative nailed down the date, telling If Its Games all three versions of the legal eagle’s debut digital outing would launch on January 8. Developed by High Voltage Software (Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, The Family Guy), Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law is rated T for Teen, and will sell for $29.99 on the PS2 and PSP and $39.99 on the Wii.
November 9, 2007
Hurts So Good
Check out the latest gameplay footage of Pain right here.
Watch | Download
If you gave Beavis and Butthead a game-development team and a Havok physics license, Pain is the kind of game we’d like to think they would eventually produce. Those of you who have kept up with Pain over the last few months will know this is basically a human version of Burnout’s crash mode, where you launch a poor guy or girl from a gigantic slingshot into an urban environment to see how much damage, chaos, and pain you can cause. Sony dropped off a finished version of the game for us to mess around with, and so far we’ve felt a little guilty about how much silly fun we’ve been having launching our hapless in-game avatar through glass, into speeding trains, and under big, fat trucks.
Sony and developer Idol Minds have made some nice, intuitive tweaks to the interface since the last several times we saw Pain. There’s now a clearer indication of your trajectory and your eventual destination based on your current aim and slingshot tension, which makes the aiming experience a lot more intuitive overall. You’ll also be required to go through the “crash course” tutorial before you get access to the actual game modes, and this tutorial does a good job of introducing you to the more advanced mechanics, such as the after-touch ability (called “ooch” here) and the numerous poses you can assume as you fly through the air. Some of these, like the leg-helicopter-spin, affect the way you fly through the air, while others, such as the legs-spread pose, just look like they hurt a lot.
Two of Pain’s challenge modes, mime toss and spank the monkey, got us acquainted with the game’s other mechanics. You can grab in all four directions with the face buttons, and mime toss puts that ability to the test by launching you at a mime suspended in midair. It’s up to you to grab the mime, then use your spinning momentum to hurl him through a series of glass panes. The spank the monkey mode tasks you with hitting monkeys hanging out throughout the environment, and you’ll often have to hit two monkeys in the same launch to complete a combo. To do this, you’ll have to use your “ooch” after hitting the first monkey to scoot along the ground and take out the second one before losing all your momentum.
That’s going to be a lot less fun on the way down.
We also had a chance to mess with Pain’s multiplayer modes. In addition to horse, which has you and other players competing for high scores like you would in the traditional basketball version, there’s a bowling mode in which one player launches his character at the bowling pins down the street in an effort to knock them down as per standard bowling rules. What’s not so standard is the other players’ abilities to trigger environmental booby traps at any point during the active player’s launch. You can blow the lid off a manhole, set off explosives that will send construction materials swinging through the scene, and more. Then there’s an explosives mode that peppers the environment with tons of explosive crates. Sony described this mode as human pinball, which is exactly what it is. You’ll try to bounce from one crate to another–again, using your ooch to cover the last few feet if necessary–and essentially keep a combo going as long as possible to get the highest score.
Pain is entertaining and funny in the same way Jackass is, and we’re not ashamed to admit we’ve laughed out loud plenty of times in the couple of days we’ve been messing around with it. We’re not quite as amused at the game’s pricing structure–you’ll pay 10 dollars for the base game, which includes one environment and two selectable characters. Subsequent characters and levels will be made available after release for as-yet unspecified fees. At least you’ll be able to purchase the extra content right from within, say, the level-select screen, rather than having to drop back to an arbitrary store interface. And, to be fair, we could see getting a lot of mileage out of the one map that’s included in the game, since you’ve got quite a few game modes to play on it. Let’s hope Sony doesn’t go overboard with the nickel-and-diming on Pain’s extra content, because what we’ve played of it so far has been highly enjoyable. Sony is still nailing down a final release date for the game but expects it to hit right around the end of November.
-If Its Games
November 9, 2007
This week, Nintendo’s iconic mustachioed plumber deftly worked the pipes stateside, racking up high praise for his debut on the Wii with Super Mario Galaxy. However, Mario’s space odyssey has been out in Japan since November 1, and Japanese gamers have been ushering his arrival with a plateful of yen. In the four days since launch, Super Mario Galaxy has sold 251,000 units, according to the latest figures from stat trackers Media Create.
Indicative of the island nation’s continued fascination with Nintendo’s hardware, the House that Mario Built commandeered eight of the top 10 slots in this week’s sales chart. The Nintendo DS accounted for the bulk of those sales, with Final Fantasy Tactics A2 landing in the third position with 51,000 units sold, DS Literature Collection in fifth selling 18,000, and DS Nishimura Kyotarou Suspense Detective Series: Deadly Intent at sixth with 18,000 units.
Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day, World Soccer Winning Eleven DS: Goal to Goal, and Pokémon Mysterious Dungeon: Time Expedition Party rounded out the top 10 with 15,000, 15,000 again, and 14,000 units, respectively. A staple of Japan’s charts, Wii Sports, which is not packed in with Nintendo’s console in Japan, moved 16,000 more units, bringing its lifetime total to 2,182,000.
While the Xbox 360 continues to struggle in Japan, some homecourt publishers have been able to find a foothold in the market. Case in point, Namco Bandai made a strong debut for the week with Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation moving 77,000 units, securing second place. Another new entrant in Japan’s charts, Banpresto’s Super Robot Wars Scramble Commander the 2nd, sold 21,000 copies and filed in at the fourth slot.
November 9, 2007
PC World - Trend Micro introduced a security service for Sony’s PlayStation 3 on Thursday that blocks access to some potentially malicious Web sites. It’s Trend’s first product aimed at gamers.
November 9, 2007
Reuters - The sniper crouches down in the tall grass, then pauses using his scope to draw a bead on an enemy soldier, who staggers back in a spray of blood.
November 9, 2007
NewsFactor - If your kids spend too much time playing video games on the Xbox 360, you will probably be happy to know that Microsoft is adding a parent-pleasing feature — a timer.
November 9, 2007
AFP - A major US retail chain yanked “Manhunt 2″ from its shelves after hackers published ways to resurrect gory scenes blurred to make the ultra-violent video game tamer.
November 9, 2007
Shigeru Miyamoto believes that after over 20 years of trying, Nintendo have finally created a great Mario multiplayer experience with Mario Galaxy. Miyamoto had a very strong image of a mother controlling Mario, while her child assisted her saying things like “Mum, there’s an enemy over here!” He hopes Mario Galaxy\’s Co-Star mode will encourage conversations between beginners and experts.
November 9, 2007
Nintendo Japan has posted a message at the Q&A section of its site stating that the promised DVD-ready Wii won\’t make it out in 2007. Nintendo said the reason for this is that they need to maintain effective production in order to keep up with worldwide demand for the Wii. Maybe next year then…..
November 9, 2007
Check out the Wii\’s evil arch nemesis the Vii in action!
November 9, 2007
Some of the more artistic fans have even taken it upon themselves to make Miis of celebrities, politicians and fictional characters. Nintendo supports consumers\’ creative spirit with the Nov. 11 evening launch of the Check Mii Out Channel. This free new channel can be downloaded from the WiiWare section of the Wii Shop Channel by people who have their Wii systems connected to the Internet.
November 9, 2007
eMarketer has taken the trouble to round up all the monthly sales of games consoles from the start of 2007 until September. Note the table shows the total US sales at the bottom and not from year to date only.
November 9, 2007
Here is a Japanese TV Spot for Wii Fit, the phrase less is more comes into mind here (or perhaps less is just less)…