By now and thanks to 2010’s E3, many gamers have heard of Sony’s intention of releasing their answer to Nintendo’s WiiMote with the Playstation Move. It promises to move the Playstation 3 towards the direction of providing motion-controlled gameplay experience.
Of course, that is going to need game developers producing titles that are compatible with the Playstation Move. Here is a list of the first twelve titles announced by Sony that will support the new control scheme:
The Activision blockbuster franchise, Call of Duty, has always focused bringing realistic warfare from the past and present into the hands of gamers. That may change, however, into a more Star Wars-like future.
Activision has secured the website domain names callofdutyfuturewarfare.com, callofdutyfuturewarfare2.com, callofdutyfuturewarfare3.comcallospacewarfare2.com, spacewarfare3.com, secretwarfare2.com, secretwarfare3.com, Advancedwarfare2.com, and Advancedwarfare3.com.
All these domain choices seem to point towards Call of Duty moving the battle into space.
The Sony Playstation 3 had a lot of loss ground to make up. After finally edging out its own system, the PS2, in annual sales, the PS3 still came in a distant third after the Xbox360 and the Nintendo Wii. The last 12 month annual sales period ended on March 31st, 2010, so where now does Sony stand in the console war?
Sony lost $435.6 million last year. As daunting of a figure as that may be, that is an improvement from the year prior that cost Sony a whopping $1.05 billion. PSP sales dropped from 14.1 million units sold to 9.9 million.
According to Sony,
“Game sales decreased due to unfavorable foreign currency exchange rates and decreases in unit sales of PSP hardware and of PS2 software, although unit sales of PS3 software increased……Despite PS3 hardware cost reductions and increased unit sales of PS3 software, profitability deteriorated primarily due to lower unit sales of PS2 software and of PSP hardware.”
There are promising signs for the PS3, however. Sony did meet their (what was once considered unlikely) goal of selling 13 million PS3 systems. Much of those sales came in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, which very well may point towards 2010 being a good year for the PS3.
Nintendo Senior Managing Director and Mario Creator
There are few things that make gamers groan faster than a rumor about a company starting to charge for online access to their games, but, in Nintendo’s case, it may be more than merely a rumor.
According to Shigeru Miyamoto, the Senior Managing Director of Nintendo, during a recent interview with Edge online magazine, the tradition of free access may come to an end.
“Probably the other thing that we are desperate to realize is the core [online] business structure. Do we need to demand customers pay monthly fees to enjoy online activities? Or give an online subscription that is free of charge, but then offer something extra for people that pay, so that they get some extra value? With these core business strategies, I think we are less active than we should be.” -Shigeru Miyamoto
A lot has changed since Pac-Man ate his first blue ghost.
It is hard to believe that probably one of the most legendary video game characters in history has turned thirty years old. It is no secret that Pac-Man has not meshed well into later generations of video games, let alone the 3D graphics era led by the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and the Playstation 3.
Is Pac-Man out for the count?
Namco, the makers of the Pac-Man franchise, is giving a resounding “No,” and they plan to issue the rebuttal officially during E3. Avi Arad, the once CEO of Marvel Comics and film producer, is geared to unveil this generation’s Pac-Man.
The fact that Hollywood is eager to make a movie adaption of the highly successful Uncharted franchise by Naughty Dog and Sony should come as no surprise. The game played like a movie and drew heavy influence from the action film genre, perhaps more so than it did from previous platform games.
Sony Pictures are starting to narrow down the possibilities as to who will be filling the director’s seat. David O’ Russell, who directed Three Kings, but may be better known for his dead-pan comedy efforts, Spanking the Monkey and I [Heart] Huckabees is at top of the list.
If the director choice is raising any red flags, the choice of screenwriters won’t help. According to the LA Times, the script has been penned by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer. The pair of screenwriters didn’t gain a whole lot of attention with their previous efforts: Sahara and Sound of Thunder.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is back. This time with improved Multiplayer features.
While the first Super Mario Galaxy was well received by fans and critics alike, it was criticized for having an unsatisfying multiplayer option. A second player had to be content with merely moving around a cursor and collecting fire bits while the first player had all the real fun.
Nintendo seems ready to answer that call of improvement with Super Mario Galaxy 2. Now, according to pre-released demo versions, the second player may still be in a supportive role, but he/she can have a significant impact on the game by collecting fire bits, attacking enemies, grabbing power-ups and extra lives, and even shake the remote to knock villains out of Mario’s path. The second player can also offer encouragement as a neat little bonus by means of cheering and coin collecting sound effects issued from the WiiMote at the second player’s cue.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is due to hit the shelves May 23rd, 2010.
[Source: Gamespot.com]
The Beta version of the forthcoming Halo: Reach game for Microsoft’s Xbox360 is scheduled to go public May 2nd, 2010. Bungie, the game developer behind the Halo franchise, is offering it as a free download to any one who owns a copy of Halo 3: ODST.
The success of MW2 continues despite company collapse.
There have been very few company management meltdowns as public and as ill-timed as the one presently occurring between Activision and Infinity Ward. After breaking sales records with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in late 2009, Activsion grossly miscalculated its firing of Infinity Ward founders, Jason West and Vince Zampella.
The result of the firing has already resulted in 26 Infinity Ward staff members turning in their letters of resignation to Activision, and they appear to have a clear designation for their migration: Respawn Entertainment.
Respawn Entertainment is the newly created indie gaming studio launched by Jason West and Vince Zampella. Only time will tell if they will succeed at creating a competitor for the Call of Duty franchise, but it certainly appears that they have Activision within their crosshairs.
A development presentation of Sony's 3D firmware for the PS3.
Scheduled for the summer of 2010, Sony plans to release firmware for the Playstation 3 system that will enable the system to play games (Blue-Ray support will be a separate release) with 3D effects. In the near future, gamers could enjoy 3D effects in their favorite games much like they enjoyed the enhancement in blockbuster movies such as The Avatar.
There are a few catches, however. Just because firmware is being released, doesn’t mean that players will immediately be able to put in Modern Warfare 2, for example, and become engrossed in 3D warfare. Game makers will need to re-release these titles with 3D production. Also, the 3D enhancement comes at a price. According to David Coombes, Sony’s Platform Research Manager, playing games in 3D could cut their console’s processing power in half.
