Archive for April 25th, 2008
April 25, 2008
As the sole third-party rights holder to the Major League Baseball license, Take-Two has enjoyed a monopoly of sorts on the sim baseball gaming space, with the only real competitor of its MLB 2K franchise being Sony with MLB: The Show. As the pro license is wrapped up until 2012, Activision has found the best solution to this conundrum is to step up to the little league plate.
The players are happy. The ump, not so much.
The publisher has announced Little League World Series 2008 for the Wii and Nintendo DS will take the field August 5. Billed as “the first officially licensed Little League video game to hit next-generation consoles,” Little League World Series 2008 offers 16 international teams, eight of which hail from the US. In addition to a standard franchise mode, the game offers a variety of skill-based minigames and character customization options.
Few specific gameplay details have been revealed, but Activision did say that the game will make use of the Wii’s motion-sensing controls, while the DS edition “gives players the freedom to get on the diamond anywhere.” Activision is aiming for an authentic baseball experience, and little leaguers will be able to bat, field, and pitch.
April 25, 2008
After having the next-gen console race to itself for a year, the Xbox 360 has been in a three-way battle since the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii launched in November 2006. After being roundly outsold by the Wii for most of last year–save for September, when Halo 3 debuted–the console found its sales bested by the PlayStation 3 in January and February. In March, the 360 triumphed over Sony’s console by a mere 5,000 units.
However, despite the competition, the Xbox 360 is helping Microsoft turn a profit the size of many country’s entire economies. According to an earnings report filed today, the software giant’s Entertainment and Devices Division–which includes income from the Xbox 360, Games for Windows, and Zune multimedia handheld–saw its quarterly revenue surge 68 percent.
For the three months ended March 31, the division saw $1.57 billion in revenue, up from $936 million the prior year. However, operating income for the period was just $89 million–an improvement over the $324 million loss the company took the year before, as outcry over widespread 360 hardware failures was reaching a fever pitch.
In a statement, Microsoft called out the division as being one of the crown jewels of its multibillion-dollar empire. “The Entertainment and Devices revenue for the quarter grew 68 percent over the comparable period last year driven by robust demand for Xbox 360 consoles,” the company said. “Cumulative console sales surpassed 19 million during the quarter, up 74 percent from a year ago.” For the nine months ending March 31, the department took in $6.57 billion, a year-on-year increase of $1.65 billion.
Overall, Microsoft beat analyst expectations, despite a sizable drop in profits. The January-March period saw it earn $4.39 billion on $14.5 billion in revenue, down 11 percent from the same period in 2007. Earnings were hurt by a $1.42 billion fine levied on the company by the European Union and helped by an 18 percent rise in server and tools division revenue.
For the current April-June quarter, Microsoft estimates it will have operating income of $5.8 billion to $6.2 billion on revenues of $15.5 billion to $15.8 billion. For the financial year ending June 30, 2008, the company expects operating income of $26.7 billion to $27.4 billion on $66.9 billion to $68.0 billion in revenue.
April 25, 2008
One of the games Microsoft and Namco Bandai Games showed off at last year’s Tokyo Game Show was Smash Court Tennis 3. Released for the Xbox 360 in Japan last December, the game will now apparently be getting a North American release as well. Atari said today that it would be importing Smash Court Tennis 3 to Microsoft’s console this August.
Federer typically doesn’t have cause to frown.
Not to be confused with the upcoming Top Spin 3 or Virtua Tennis 3, Smash Court Tennis 3 is Namco Bandai’s latest realistic sim tennis title, and features 16 top performers on the pro circuit, including Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal, Martina Hingis, Andreas Seppi, and Nicole Vaidisova. The game packs an extensive suite of customization options that will let players create their own personalized superstars.
Smash Court 3 offers a host of graphic and gameplay updates form its legacy-generation precursors. Players will be able to compete in a variety of modes, including Tutorial, Arcade, Pro-Tour, and Exhibition, and Smash Court 3 will accommodate online play over Xbox Live. Online matches accommodate up to four players, gamers can compete in online tournaments, and the game supports leaderboards and voice chat.
For an idea of what to expect from Smash Court Tennis 3, check out If Its Games’s review of the PlayStation Portable of the game, released last July.
April 25, 2008
Grand Theft Auto IV
The game everyone wants will be here soon.
Watch | Download
Grand Theft Auto IV is the game everyone wants. You know it, we know it, and developer Rockstar Games knows it. And now that the highly anticipated action adventure game is nearing its release, we’ve sat down with Rockstar North associate producer Imran Sarwar to get new details on the game’s weapon and cover system, and the various improvements that have been made to combat. Enjoy these new details and screenshots and gear up for the game’s release at If Its Games’s Grand Theft Auto IV launch center.
Welcome to Liberty City. We hope you didn’t need that car.
If Its Games: How many different weapons are there in the GTAIV?
Imran Sarwar: There are 15 weapons in total, and you can now pick up objects from the street, such as bricks, and throw them. There’s a good amount included for all situations and playing styles.
GS: Which is your favorite and why?
IS: Due to the amount of carnage, havoc, and sheer destruction you can cause–it has to be the RPG. It has been made a lot more realistic. The rockets can deviate from their path if they skip off the ground or other objects. Firing a rocket at a car and seeing the smoke trail with a spectacular explosion is very cool. And when an LCPD chopper has you cornered, seeing the rotors come off, the tail snap off, and the [chopper itself] fall to the ground in a massive explosion is pretty cool too–with the particle effects, it’s all really cinematic. The shotguns deserve a mention too–the damage they do at close range is really satisfying.
GS: We understand that there are not going to be any ammunition stores–what prompted this decision? How will you be able to buy weapons this time?
IS: With GTAIV, we were trying to make our own semirealistic version of New York and it didn’t feel right having those big gun supermarkets in the city. In this game, there are underground gun shops around the city, but you initially need to be shown where they are. You can also buy guns out of the car of your friend, Little Jacob. If you maintain your friendship with him, he’ll help you out by meeting you around the city and making his arsenal of weaponry available, at a discounted price of course–you can call him any time of the day while on or off missions.
GS: For the RPG, particularly the way the trajectory spirals, how do you code for such seemingly random movement?
IS: The RPG projectiles are initially fired in a straight line, but they can ricochet and deviate from glancing collisions. The spiraling of the smoke trail is done in the visual effects system. We have a lot of power and flexibility in controlling the position and behavior of all particles, so we can give the trail a nice curling behavior while also adding gravity and in-game wind forces to each particle.
GS: What changes have been made to the on-foot targeting system for GTAIV?
The game will have a new targeting system. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to use it.
IS: The targeting system has been given an overhaul and we are pretty confident it will cater to every style of gamer. You can now lock on, and while locked on, target any part of the body by moving the reticle. Using the full range of the lock-on button really gives players the flexibility of using both to free-aim and lock on at any point, so whether you want to frantically lock on and shoot an enemy who is bearing down on you with a shotgun, or carefully free aim and shoot the petrol tank of a car, it’s all done easily through the same system. We’ve also put in a “perfect shot” system–by squeezing the trigger button slightly when you first lock on to a target you can watch the targeting reticle tighten up and your first shot will be more accurate. Brilliant for one-shot takedowns. If you don’t want to use the locking system, you can solely use free aim as well. Unlike previous GTAs, you can use the targeting system to throw grenades and Molotov [cocktails] and make sure they reach their targets (providing they’re in reach). The euphoria technology really brings the new targeting system to life.
-If Its Games
April 25, 2008
Grand Theft Auto IV’s hype has just about reached fever pitch. With only days to go until GTAIV’s global release, Rockstar’s vice president of creative, Dan Houser, spoke to British men’s magazine ShortList about the game’s development process; the replication of New York as a living, breathing, city; and why GTAIV isn’t so controversial after all.
Houser spills the beans in this week’s ShortList. (Credit: ShortList.com)
Houser, who cofounded Rockstar with brother Sam Houser, says early on in the interview, “Grand Theft Auto IV will change the way people think about video games…we had to make sure no one thought, ‘It’s just like the previous one; I could have played this on my old machine.’”
So besides new characters, music, and multiplayer modes, what else is new in GTAIV? Houser says, “the fourth dimension is details…there are about 40 new things in GTAIV, from the new motion physics of the main character to the firearm targeting to the interaction with pedestrians. The overall goal was to make the world feel more alive. Every little detail was researched, analysed, and broken down.”
Houser goes on to explain what the main focus was for the 150-strong development team at Rockstar North. “The No 1 thing in all GTA games is that the lead character is the city…Aaron [Garbut, Rockstar North art director] has a lot of responsibility and basically has to build an entire city and make it run and behave like a real place; that’s the priority.”
The Grand Theft Auto series has always attracted varying degrees of controversy, not least with the Hot Coffee scandal from GTA: San Andreas. While GTAIV has yet to be released, it has still attracted the attention of US administrators, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office, and Chicago Transit Authority president Ron Huberman who had advertisements pulled from Chicago’s public transport.
Responding to the criticism from politicians and mainstream press, Houser says, “the ‘controversy’ story gets a bit frustrating…if this was a movie, a book, or a TV show, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. We’re an easy enemy to divert everyone’s attention from the stuff that really matters.”
“There’s an argument that video games have caused this massive upsurge in youth violence–they haven’t, it’s actually gone down. So it’s got nothing to do with the content; it’s to do with the medium. The problem is that video games aren’t the medium [of politicians and tabloid journalists]. Well, that’s just a social change, and you’re a Luddite if you challenge that,” Houser adds.
Rockstar’s creative guru rounds out the interview by saying, “There are so many freaks and nutters wandering around New York, and we’ve put them straight into this game. There’s a thing there at the moment with people coming up to you and going, ‘Do you like hip-hop?’ and you say, ‘Yeah, sure, why?’ so they go, ‘Well here’s my CD; that’s 15 bucks.’ The aim of GTAIV was to capture the essence and energy of these maniacs.”
To read Houser’s full interview with ShortList, visit www.shortlist.com.
April 25, 2008
Launching a new hit franchise with Assassin’s Creed may be the most visible success that Ubisoft achieved over the last year, but the French publisher spread the love around a little more broadly in its fourth-quarter financial report today.
Assassin’s Creed was just one of a few big wins to which the company attributed its 36 percent full-year sales increase. The publisher also said that existing brands such as Rainbow Six, Rayman, Settlers, and Ghost Recon all turned in strong sales performances. Furthermore, its Games for Everyone range of casual games, which includes the Petz, My Coach, and Imagine series, tripled its sales over the course of the year.
For the 12 months ended March 31, Ubisoft racked up revenues of €928 million ($1.46 billion), up from €680 million ($1.07 billion) for the previous year. The Wii- and DS-centric Games for Everyone line accounted for nearly a full quarter of that haul, bringing in a total of €230 million ($361 million).
As for the most recent quarter, revenues were up a more modest 10 percent to €217 million ($340 million), which was still above Ubisoft’s original guidance. The publisher’s gamble on a Rainbow Six Vegas sequel paid off, with Rainbow Six Vegas 2 coming in second on the March sales charts in both the US and the UK, and more than 2 million copies of the tactical shooter shipped to retailers. Assassin’s Creed also continued sneaking off of shelves, with the stealth action game now having shipped 6 million copies worldwide.
Looking ahead, Ubisoft executives said in a conference call with investors that 2008 appears set to be another record year for the company, in part due to the company’s recent purchase of the Tom Clancy brand. The battle plan calls for continued emphasis on building existing franchises and expanding the casual lineup with games like a new Wii party game. To help the publisher achieve that, it’s ramping up the hiring process, looking to hire an additional 500 employees for new offices in Singapore, China, and India, with an extra 400 being added to the mix in more established studios.
April 25, 2008
AFP - Japanese video game giant Nintendo Co. said Thursday that its annual operating profit had more than doubled as sales hit a record high on surging demand for its Wii and DS consoles.
April 25, 2008
AP - Nintendo Co.’s net profit surged 47.7 percent to a record high, powered by strong sales of software and accessories for its popular Wii video game console and brisk sales of its DS handheld devices.
April 25, 2008
Reuters - Japan’s Nintendo Co Ltd (7974.OS), maker of the hit Wii game machine, said on Thursday fourth-quarter profit jumped 60 percent but it forecast only modest annual growth of 9 percent as sales of its DS handheld machine slow.
April 25, 2008
Reuters - Sony’s PlayStation 3 is off to the races with a teaser installment of its iconic “Gran Turismo” franchise, starting this year’s high-octane video game lineup with a wave of the checkered flag.
April 25, 2008
NewsFactor - While the buzz is building that Grand Theft Auto IV will be the biggest video game release ever, the leaked copies of the software are making it onto the Internet.
April 25, 2008
Reuters - After exhausting just about every elf, dragon and knight featured in Western cultures, makers of popular online games are turning to ancient Asian history and war heroes for new inspiration.
April 25, 2008
Capcom are offering to replace the US Okami for Wii box art because it was shipped with the ign watermark. \”If you purchased Okami for the Wii, for a limited time, you can choose from one of the three art pieces below and Capcom will ship a high-quality version of the box cover straight to your door.\” You can order your replacement here.
April 25, 2008
Nintendo Norway have sent out full Wii/DS release lists. The lists reveals that Super Smash Bros. Brawl is coming 27 June, WiiWare May 20 and the Nintendo Channel on May 30.
April 25, 2008
Nintendo has reported its full year financial results which has revealed that the company has made over $1 billion in hardware sales during the period. Also Nintendo\’s hardware and software sales were up 73 percent which led to an operating income increase of 115.6 per cent and profit increasing 47.7 per cent. Despite these impressive figures, Nintendo is forecasting only a 7.6 per cent increase in sales for the next fiscal year.
;)
;)
;)