Here are the software and hardware numbers from Japan, straight from Media Create, for the week 08-23 to 08-29.
The big seller last week was Capcom's MonHun Nikki: Poka Poka Ailu Mura for PSP, selling 256,076 copies. MonHun Nikki is a spin off from Monster Hunter that seems to combine Monster Hunter's Airu characters with inspiration from Animal Crossing and an extreme dose of cuteness. From Andriasang:
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Different from other Monster Hunter games, quests aren't the main point of Monster Hunter Diary. The focus, explained Kitabayashi to Famitsu, is on life in the village. Hunting is just a part of that.
You'll definitely want to go on hunts, though, as this is one way to get materials for making new facilities. It's not the only way, though, as you can also get materials from your village itself.
One of the main points of the producer interview appears to be that there's no specific way to play Monhan Nikki. Going out on quests is one way to attract Airu to your village. But some Airu will come over if you just happen to have a certain number of a particular item.
The PSP also sold well, doubling the sales of the previous week. The sales of most other hardware dropped slightly.
The big announcement this week was the release date for Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. Due out on December 1 at 5,800 yen, the game should chart well leading up to Christmas and into the New Year.
August 31 was virtual idol Hatsune Miku's 3rd birthday and SGCafe Blog has a nice little write up on her origins.
Hot on the heels of yesterday's unveiling of ProjectSword and the release of the Citadel tech demo to the app store, Epic's own Mike Capps sat down with GamaSutra to discuss all things iOS development and some of the unique challenges (and oppurtunities) it presents.
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GamaSutra: Do you see this as becoming a big area for the use of your engine? Do you see it becoming a big new space?
Capps: I do. I mean, with the expansion of the Unreal Development Kit, we've got hundreds of thousands of folks who are messing around with the tools doing smaller projects. So we're not really just about giant triple-A console games anymore. Those are the ones -- Mass Effect gets press, but there are lots of small hobby groups or casual gamers using Unreal Engine. I think it's perfect for them. It's what they've been missing.
It doesn't take a whole lot of leaps of faith to say, "Right now, I can display from my iPad to my Apple TV on a big screen TV." How far away are we from "that's my game console, and it's displaying wirelessly to my television set?" It's not far away.
For those eager to put their PS3 through its paces as a 3D Blu-ray player, it looks like you're going to be waiting just a little bit longer as Sony's planned update including said feature hs been pushed from this month until sometime in October. Engadget has further details:
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Despite what we'd heard before, Sony announced today at IFA that the firmware update bringing 3D Blu-ray playback to the PlayStation 3 will not arrive this month, instead pushed back to October which, we are told, is an entire 30 days away. until then we'll have to live with the recent MotorStorm 3D game that recently popped up on PSN and a slightly-lower res version of Wipeout. Unfortunately, there still aren't many movies to watch for the time being, and even the most ardent early adopters may want to wait until Sony rolls out the Michael Jackson's This Is It - 3D Enhanced Edition and Alice in Wonderland 3D bundles it also announced.
Resident Evil ceator, and most recently Vanquish developer, Shinji Mikami isn't interested in what the current crop of motion control devices has to offer, and believes they won't become mainstream for at least another decade.
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Talking to PSM3 magazine, the father of Resident Evil said he didn't expect devices like Microsoft's Kinect and the PlayStation Move to have a real impact for a long long time.
"I don't think motion controls will be in the gaming mainstream in the next ten years," he said.
"When the technology gets to the point where you can just flick your eyeballs around and the computer can pick it up, you won't need a controller anymore. Obviously it's going to take a while to get there."
We took a bit of a break after the last episode, hoping that we could get Clayton in for this recording, but even with the delay it just didn’t end up working out – sometimes that’s how it goes. He’ll be back for the next one – in the meantime, I think we’ve still got a pretty great discussion for you to listen to, it’ll just sound like crap without our producer.
The main topic for this go-round is sequels and how we feel about them; we each brought lists to the recordings of the games we’ve enjoyed in the last couple of years and the ones we’re looking forward to in the near future, and we let the sequels and the new IP’s fight it out to see who would come out on top. Who won? Well you’ll have to listen to find that out, obviously.
Also discussed are some Left 4 Dead campaign maps that have been brought over to Left 4 Dead 2 – a development I find delightful – further adventures in SMOD with J_Arcane (video hopefully forthcoming), and the state of OnLive, which as it turns out is surprisingly good in some ways, while still being awful in all the ways we already know about.
One correction – at one point early on I toss out the word “GenCon”, but my brain wanted to say and should have said “GamesCom” there – and a quick note of apology: Clayton sent me his sequel vs. new IP list before the recording and I thought I copied it over correctly, but I did not and they were left out. While you are listening, please mentally add these to the list…
Original IP’s: Metro 2033, Plants vs Zombies, World of Goo, Brink (upcoming), Warhammer 40K – Dark Millennium Online (upcoming) Sequels: Tales of Monkey Island, Warhammer 40K – Dawn of War 2 – Retribution (upcoming)
Without further ado, please enjoy our exploration of… Sequelitis.
Hosted by Eric [Ravenlock]
Participants are J_Arcane, Steve [Dukefrukem] and James [Vigil80]
Produced by Eric [Ravenlock]… God help us.
Not content to rule the PC & console space, Epic has set their sights on mobile devices with Project Sword, the first Unreal Engine powered title to appear on the iPhone. Project Sword was unveiled this morning at an Apple event, and it sure does look pretty.
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Named Project Sword, the game looks to be a multiplayer game revolving around sword-based combat. The game is being developed by Shadow Compex developer Chair Entertainment.
The game appears to be an RPG, with swordplay coming by way of motion swipes or icon-based touch controls, and is due out this Holiday season.
The Valve interview found in the current issue of PC Gamer UK continues to provide, as now it comes out that Valve's own Gabe Newell is pretty pleased with what they have in store for gamers over the next 12 months.
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"I can guarantee you people are going to be surprised at stuff we do. That isn't going to stop any time soon. I'm just laughing because... people will be shocked again," Valve boss Gabe Newell told the latest issue of PC Gamer.
"We have three pretty big surprises in the next 12 months at least."
Is the current business model of game development and publishing irrevocably broken? More and more every week it seems to be that way, and for a variety of reasons.
In an interview with Gamesindustry, Ubisoft Europe head Alain Corre spoke about the problems with making successful new IPs. One quote in particular will generate the most discussion.
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To launch a new IP you have to invest much, much more marketing to establish it, and if you add up the huge costs of development plus the investment in marketing you cannot be 100 per cent sure the target audience you’d expect, which is needed for the comeback on the investment. Especially in this part of the cycle of the consoles, we are cautious now to introduce new brands. We’ll concentrate on the ones we have and make sure we bring them to the next level in terms of quality. We are still releasing some new franchises, RUSE is one, but it’s a niche so we know the size of the market for real-time strategy games. We think with RUSE what we’ve invested so far we’ll be able to find the right consumers and be profitable. With niche games it’s possible to have a hit more than in the triple-A space, especially in the fourth and fifth year of the console cycle. We would expect franchises to be established now.
Translation: new IPs are too risky to launch this deep into a console's lifecycle. Most gamers are pretty set in their ways inside of this generation, and chances are any new property we launch won't be able to break through enough to turn a profit.
Unfortunately this seems to turn conventional wisdom on it's head. Historically it was the latter years of a console's life which made everyone the most money. Most of the major technological issues have been surmounted, and the tastes of this generation of gamers are generally well known. Developers could crank out games, even risky games, with the knowledge that they'd still likely make at least a little profit. But not now. Budgets for retail titles are sky high, and anything doing less than AAA sales will almost certainly be seen as a money loser. Sad but true.
So if you're a fan of Tom Clancy, Assassins' Creed and Prince of Persia you'll probably have your fill of games over the next few years.
Back in June, Telltale revealed that they inked a deal with NBC Universal to produce episodic games based on Jurassic Park and Back to the Future. Today, USA Today unveiled some excellent artwork related to the upcoming Back to the Future title, along with some scant, but welcome details. Apparently Christopher Lloyd will be providing the voice of Doc Brown, and original BTTF scribe Bob Gale will be working with Telltale on the plot for the five-episode series. The Delorean is expected to make an appearance (how could it not? Honestly!), as will the fictional 1985 town of Hill Valley.
No word yet on when the game is expected to become available, or whether or not it will be better than its NES predecessor.
EA and retailers alike were quick to point out that last year's Madden 10 had a dissapointing launch in terms of sales, and failed to live up to sales figures from the previous year. The latest Madden however appears to be shrugging off the past and according to EA is showing improved sales to the tune of a 5% increase over last year.
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Publisher Electronic Arts has announced that its major retail title Madden NFL 11, which launched earlier this month for PlayStation 2 & 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and PSP, is currently the number one selling game for August in the North American market, according to its internal tracking.
Sales are projected to be up approximately 5 percent year-over-year across all platforms for the month, according to a statement released by the company this afternoon.
In analyst note following the statement, Lazard Capital Markets' Colin Sebastian commented on the gains, suggesting that the franchise appears to be benefiting from improved gameplay, citing EA's press release -- which notes that 85 percent of users have used the new streamlined "GameFlow" play calling feature.
EA says that GameFlow "streamlines play calling and shortens overall game length for a more accessible experience.
The FFXIV Beta Application has been updated with the news that the issue with the beta client that prevented the beta from starting on Monday has been resolved and that Square now plans on kicking things off tonight.
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FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test Will Start on Sep. 1!
We would like to take this opportunity to provide an update regarding FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, which was announced to be postponed on Aug. 31, 2010.
Along with the completion on investigation and correction of the critical issue, we have decided to begin FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test on Sep. 1, 2010 at 19:00 (PDT).
Starting on Sep. 1, 2010 at 19:00 (PDT), acquisition of registration code required for FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test will be available.
We are looking forward to your participation in FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test!
Will be interesting to see how the game is received after all the discussion around the Fatigue system. Unfortunately I will be leaving for PAX tomorrow morning so even if I can get into the beta, I won't be able to participate until next week.
The highlight for this week's PSN update for many is going to be the demo for Vanquish, and to a lesser extent, R.U.S.E. The PSN also finally sees the release of Castle Crashers, as well as the PS1 game that absolutely everyone has been screaming for, Sim Hospital. Deep down you know it to be true. The full update from the PlayStation Blog:
PS3:
Castle Crashers ($14.99) [With Demo]
Sam And Max Episode 5: The City That Dares Not Sleep
Theme Hospital ($5.99) [PS1]
Vanquish Official Demo – Velocity Attack
R.U.S.E. Demo
ModNation Racers DLC
MAG DLC
Bioshock 2 – Minerva’s Den ($9.99)
Split Second DLC
Yakuza 3: Challenge Pack ($3.99)
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days DLC
Guitar Hero Tracks
Rock Band Tracks
Rock Band Network Tracks
On Sale:
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix – Sale (now $7.49, original price $14.99)
Digger HD – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Mushroom Wars – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Worms – Sale (now $6.49, original price $12.99)
Sam And Max – The Devil’s Playhouse – Full Season – Sale (now $19.99, original price $29.99)
Cuboid – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Magic Orbz – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
Smash Cars – Sale (now $8.99, original price $14.99)
Wakeboarding HD – Sale (now $8.99, original price $14.99)
Hamsterball – Sale (now $5.99, original price $9.99)
PSP:
Valkyria Chronicles 2 ($39.99)
Theme Hospital ($5.99) [PS1]
Coconut Dodge – Minis ($3.99)
LittleBigPlanet PSP – King Arthur Costume (Free)
LittleBigPlanet PSP – King Arthur Pack ($2.99)
On Sale:
DYNOGEMS – minis – Sale (now $1.99, original price $2.99)
Tehra: Dark Warrior – minis – Sale (now $2.99, original price $4.99)
In an exclusive interview with EDGE magazine, former overseer of all things Xbox and current head of EA Sports, Peter Moore, sees EA's Online Pass not as paying more for something that was once included, but as "a way of bringing more digital experiences quicker from day one". Sounds exciting.
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"We’re looking at 5 million game sessions every day on EA Sports servers." says Moore. "But [looking] at digital delivery, maintaining servers able to support that volume of people every 24 hours, a solid billing infrastructure and customer support – it all takes time, effort and money and we’re at the cutting edge of that."
As well as the need to support a growing infrastructure, Moore thinks that the secured revenue will allow the company to deliver more content.
"Online Pass is a way of bringing more digital experiences quicker from day one, getting people new content – it will start with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, roll into NCAA Football and then probably Madden. It’s up to us to create compelling fresh content 365 days a year if it’s gonna be successful...There’s a cost to serve that. [Developers] deserve to get compensated for their work, and Online Pass will help us achieve that."
Fans of Twisted Pixel rejoice! Comic Jumper has a release date of October 6th and will be part of Microsoft Game Studios' Game Feast promotion. The game will be a 2 GB download and cost 1200 points. Comic Jumper will include a free premium theme, gamerpics and avatar accessories. It will be playable at PAX. So if you are going, give it a shot. The rest of us will have to wait a few months.
The long awaited sequel to one of the most favored pinball videogames is coming home for fans this year. Zen Studios is planning to release Pinball FX 2 is to XBox Live Arcade (XBLA) October 13th, 2010.
Last I checked I was at the top of my friends list on most tables... Yes, I'm flexing my bumpers
It may seem like a sequel to a pinball videogame isn't necessary, especially since the original has heavily used downloadable content to expand the available tables to over double the initial count the game offered. So Zen Studios has done a couple of things to convince people to give into the new release of the series.
First, Pinball FX 2 is a FREE download, but there's a catch: There are no new tables that come with Pinball FX 2! There will be four tables available for purchase when the game goes live, but none that come with the free update. The sequel serves more as a pinball table dashboard, where the content can be tried and purchased independently. So the main benefit for owners of the original is that all the old Pinball FX tables can be imported into Pinball FX 2. All original tables will receive a graphics update as well as new Achievements. For users who are interested in Pinball FX 2 that have not purchased the original, the game features a "robust trial system" so players can sample each table before purchasing.
There are some new social aspects to the new platform such as Pinball Wizard , Superscore and Local Split Screen Multiplayer. Superscore tracks your performance across all tables and Pinball Wizard combines yours, and all your friends' Superscores in effort to bring some co-operative initiative to the high scores table.
After nearly half a decade of complaining Microsoft has finally addressed one of the most common technical issues plaguing the Xbox 360. No, not that one. It's a new D-Pad.
The new version of the controller will come with a transforming D-Pad. A simple twist will change it from the current 'disc' configuration to the new 'plus' mode, which should be good news for fans of fighting games in particular. This new silver controller will also have new concave analog sticks and (for some reason) color-less face buttons.
Now the bad news: the new controller will only be available with the new Play & Charge kit. The bundle will sell for $64.99 beginning on November 9.
The FFXIV beta application page is the bearer of bad news this morning, as the much anticipated open beta set to begin later today has been postponed "due to a confirmation of critical bugs". I'll let Squeenix lower the boom:
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FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, which is scheduled to begin at 19:00 (PDT) on Aug. 31, 2010, will be postponed due to a confirmation of critical bugs. New schedule will be releaseｄ at a later date.
Along with the postponement of FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, the issuing of registration code for FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test will be postponed as well. With the download of client software's installer, it will be suspended at 19:00 (PDT) on Aug. 31, 2010.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Hot on the heels of a less than stellar conference call last week, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter spoke with GamaSutra and had less than reassuring things to say about Take-Two's abnormally long development cycles and the effect they have on the profitability of titles.
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"Mafia II’s average Metacritic score of 74 is well below expectations, and consumer interest appears to be waning, as the game’s position has dropped in many best-seller lists in its first week," says Pachter. "With six years in development, we believe the game is unlikely to achieve profitability."
"Game delays have become the norm at Take-Two, and we expect the company to announce a shift in release dates for LA Noire out of 2010 and into 2011," says Pachter -- noting that last quarter, the company also announced a delay, that time for Max Payne 3.
"It is important to note that both games have been in development for longer than five years, making their break-even hurdles significantly higher than a typical game," says Pachter. And he suggests it's not likely the company will yet announce a new GTA -- although he says one may still appear by holiday 2011.
"With longer development cycles, Take-Two has a profitability threshold higher than its peers," says the analyst. "We believe that the company must focus on streamlining its development process and providing better visibility on future game releases."
We're in the hands of the Keeper at the following link.
Like a personal AI director, our audience demonstrates its incredible timing and a facility for sussing out our weaknesses. Unlike other merciless overminds, however, we owe this one our most genuine thanks. Without its pointed corrections and a deep stream of worthy questions, we'd never crawl out of our angry rut and every show would devolve into a slander against some undeserving thing or another.
In spite of the brain trust's guidance we still have a tendency to act like ourselves, which means covering some old ground. So forgive us our trespasses, or however that's supposed to go, and bear with us through the inevitable dog pile on Matt, or some breathless tirade of mine that I have no right to foist upon you. The inbox will be along shortly to put things right.
Gearbox has announced that a Game of the Year edition of Borderlands will be released this October. The GOTY edition will include all 4 DLC modules and a "bonus map". We'll bring you more details as they become available.
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