Newspost for 02-12-07
Industry and multi-console news:
- The 2007 Game Developers Choice Awards will include a lifetime achievement award for Shigeru Miyamoto and a First Penguin award to Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov for pioneering the casual games market.
- The former CEO and former president of Gathering of Developers have started a new company called Gamecock. The company will serve much the same purpose as GoD did -- a publishing company for smaller, independent developers.
- Next Generation has a list of the top 100 best selling games of 2006. It's always a uniquely horrifying experience to see how high a Bratz game ranks on a bestsellers list.
- Lego Star Wars developer Travellers Tales is the company behind the new Transformers game. Presumably it'll use all the designs from the movie.
- Gamasutra and Next Generation have both pulled the best quotes from the various speeches at DICE, and somehow neither overlaps the other.
- Gamasutra provides a little test that will determine a game's sales potential in ten minutes.
- GameSetWatch has noticed that there are a number of games listed at GameFly that aren't yet officially announced.
- Similar to the FTC rule recently enacted that required those involved in viral marketing campaigns to disclose their corporate ties, the EU will soon ban "sock puppet" blogs -- blogs that are made for marketing but constructed and written to sound like a consumer.
- The new issue of Game Informer has revealed the first details on Star Wars: Force Unleashed.
- 1up's Game Hunters feature goes looking for the best places to buy games in New York City.
- If you're feeling a little lonely this Valentine's, try out some pick-up lines from Oblivion.
- There was been a bit of back and forth in the blog world over the weekend after Microscopiq named Beyond Good & Evil's Jade as one of video game's "first black stars." Everyone else turned around and went, "Wait, Jade was black?" Can't say she ever struck me as such.
- Print out these Street Fighter II Valentine's cards from 1994 and give them to someone you love. Someone you love who doesn't mind nonsensical puns and a dogfaced Chun-Li.
PC news:
- Virgin is planning its own games download service which will "replicate the functionality of iTunes."
- CVG looks at how Dungeons & Dragons influenced the modern computer game.
- Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood has posted screenshots and a link to Cave Story on the band's official blog, calling the game "a work of art."
- A PC game created by a family therapist is designed to help children deal with divorce.
- An EVE Online dev has admitted to unlawfully obtaining a number of blueprints in-game.
Nintendo news:
- This week's Virtual Console titles are Kirby's Adventure, Kid Icarus and Ice Climber.
- Series producer Michael Blank says that their team is currently considering an edition of Fight Night on the Wii.
- Nintendo has confirmed an April 9 release date for Super Paper Mario.
- Bethesda says Oblivion wouldn't work on the Wii, but "if it could we would put it there." Yet it's coming to the PSP?
- A full transcript of Twilight Princess is now available.
- Not long after Joystiq wondered if anyone would ever get a perfect score in Wii Sports bowling Power Throws, somebody submits evidence that they did it.
- Video: The ten best Famicom commercials. The '80s were weird, Japanese ads are weird, but combine them together and... well, they're just really, really weird.
- The Japanese Forecast Channel rather unfortunately translates the Pacific island of Erromango as Ero-Manga Island. Tell this to various people you know and, if they laugh, back away slowly and never talk to them again.
- Japan is still importing US DS Lites to satisfy demand. There can't possibly be enough people left in Japan to still be buying up all this stock.
- This is a picture of a hamster playing a DS. It is adorable.
Sony news:
- IGN has details on the FFXII launch event in London.
- The first 500,000 Euro PS3 owners to register their systems on the Playstation Network will get a copy of Casino Royale on Blu-ray.
- Sega stopped sales of the Virtua Stick High Grade shortly after they began because the stick has a problem that causes it to sometimes not register inputs. Sega will be offering refunds, but importers might be stuck.
- New trailers for Mist of Chaos and Odin Sphere are now available. The games are coming for the PS3 and PS2, respectively.
- Tetsuya Nomura says we should see visuals from Kingdom Hearts 3 before the end of the year.
- The IGN review of God of War 2 says that the game plays in 720p on the PS3.
- A Kotaku writer warns against playing Ar tonelico on the PS3 after it screwed his save.
- There's nothing wrong with a photo of a bride in her wedding gown playing a PSP, but it is a little odd.
Microsoft news:
- Halo 3 will be implemented a feature to mute individual players.
- A few more Halo 3 alpha shots have been leaked.
- Because apparently Halo 3 is the only game in existence for the 360, there's also an interview with Bungie's Frank O'Connor.
- Oh wait, there is that one old game: The new shader techniques being used on the PS3 version of Oblivion are also being brought to the 360.
- Worms on Xbox Live Arcade is still hung up in the certification process, with the 50 meg limit (1up's story about expanding the limit to 250 doesn't seem as likely now) causing them problems and leading to certain things being left out. This arbitrary limit thing really needs to piss off.
Comments
"Gamecock"? You gotta be kidding.
Posted by: Mitch | February 13, 2007 8:57 AM