PAX is certainly living up to its name, isn't it? The Penny Arcade Expo in its 5 years of existence has doubled attendance each and every year. While this year they didn't quite achieve the double, they still broke their previous attendance record. What's the number of this record? 58,500 estimated—over 21,000 more than last year. Maybe not an exact doubling but doggone close I would say (you would only need about 8,000 something).
Read on for interesting scriptings...
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You knew it was coming. Microsoft announced on Labor Day that they will cut the price of their XBox 360 console...in Japan. Ah, there's always a catch. The drops start September 11th (curious) and the pricing standards goes as follows: The Arcade version (the one with no hard drive) goes from ¥27,800 (approx. $257 U.S.) to ¥19,800 (approx. $183 U.S.); The Premium version (now with new 60GB hard drive) goes from ¥34,800 (approx. $320 U.S.) to ¥29,000 (approx. $275 U.S.) as it replaces the previous 20GB Premium; The Elite version (with its 120GB hard drive) goes from ¥47,800 (approx. $442 U.S.) to ¥39,800 (approx. $368 U.S.).
More to come...
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If you haven't heard anything from former Team Ninja producer then fear no more, it looks like James Mielke from 1UP got some Q&A time with Tomonobu Itagaki. Subjects like the current transition of the arcade market to more insightful thoughts like favorite WWII fighter planes are all accounted for in this interview.
I could leave you with a brief quote about Itagaki's possibly inebriated views about Hideki Kamiya or his thoughts about being underground but there just too many interesting highlights to mention; some of it might even be considered boderline insane...
eariler today at 1pm (Japanese Standard Time) Square Enix had unveiled a surprise outline of interest and potential friendly takeover of fellow gaming company Tecmo. Despite the recent media parade over legal and financial matters within the corporation the business move would help gain Square Enix's prominence overseas and furthermore strengthen their current portfolio for multiple demographics.
This lastest acquisition means that another Japanese game company might be under Square Enix's corporate ties. Taito which currently has a major holding in the arcade hardware market with its PC-architecture family of Type-X models was absorbed in August 2005, and has been a wholly-owned subsidiary since Setember 2005. In a attempt to divisify its dependent catalog of JRPGs the takeover plan involves these terms:
- Offers purchase of a controlling interest in Tecmo
- Purchased shares will be at a 30% premium (¥960/$8.85)
- The Board of Directors at Tecmo have until 9/4/2008 to decide on the offer
- If rejected, Square Enix will withdrawl the offer; alternative takeover method is unknown at this point
Look at the PR statement (in Japanese) over at Kotaku
With all the news about various companies suing the videogame machine makers over violating patents, here's news of one of the fights that originally brought this issue to the forefront. In 2002, Immersion Corporation sued both Sony and Microsoft over the vibration technology used in their controllers (originally brought to gaming by the Nintendo 64's Rumble Pak in 1997). Immersion felt that the specific tech used by Sony and Microsoft infringed on their patents and sued them for millions. It prevented Sony from putting out the controller they wanted in the PlayStation 3 until they settled the case with Sony's payment. Now Microsoft after an earlier payout settle a subsequent case with legal foe Immersion.
Read More »OK, now that you've gotten a taste of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe in the last post, check THIS clip out. It's Batman villain supreme, The Joker, delivering a character-appropiate fatality to his vanquished foe. With your developer guide talking his way through the footage shown in the screen behind him, watch The Joker in kombat mortally wound his deluded challenger. Your only question will be: Was it 'TOASTEEE!' enough?
Just in case you're curious about how this crossover title which merges the worlds of Mortal Kombat and DC Comics together, check THIS clip out. A sampling of footage showing DC's superheroes and supervillians facing off against Mortal Kombat hardened warriors. For the PlayStation 3 and the XBox 360 on November 10, 2008. Round One...Bite!
If you can remember any of the so-called controversal games of yesteryear Postal had to be on that short list, so of course a movie had to be made right?
Yep, director Uwe Boll has once again blessed us with another masterpiece that should do the game proud with a surprise unrated home release of Postal, now I know what you're probably saying to yourself: What the hell is this? Rest assured that there is something to love so sez Vince Desi:
“Own a piece of history! Only buying the DVD will get you the full complete outrageous movie and game, sadly the rental version is edited down and doesn’t include the infamous Postal games-so don’t get beat renting it.” explained Vince Desi. “The Postal Movie on DVD means EVERYONE will have the opportunity to see it, even Usama Bin-Laden from his cave won’t want to miss this."
The MSRP of this flick is $26.99(DVD) or $34.99(blu-ray), but Amazon has it on the cheap for $22.99 on DVD and a considerable price of $19.99 for the Blu-ray version. I won't judge you if you pick up a copy which I'll probably watch myself sometime but hey, its your money not mine.
Do you ever get annoyed when you get repeatedly asked the same questions again and again? Well the same goes for Hideo Kojima about the constant questions that involve Metal Gear Solid 4 and the Xbox 360, as he revealed to Eurogamer that he wishes the inquiries and explanations of platform choices would hopefully come to rest. Apparently his reasons stem from wanting to think about the gaming aspect instead of which blockbuster Konami titles can be ported to different consoles.
"What kind of disturbs me sometimes, because a lot of people ask me about this PS3/360 question, is that it's not about the hardware - I want people to look at the game itself. Sometimes I even feel like it should be on a PC so that people don't ask me about hardware and platforms."
For the record he does state that the acclaim of Metal Gear Solid is a entwined affair with the PlayStation family and that MGS4 was optimized exclusively for the PS3 in that regard; now that we got out of the way maybe now our poor ol' Hideo can finally be at peace for a bit.
Love it or hate it, the mixture of nitrous and "awe-inspiring" dialouge will once again be in the air with the fourth latest installment of The Fast and the Furious. if you enjoyed the rice-burning and American muscle theatrics layered throughout the first three films (yes, 2 Fast 2 Furious was quite terrible) then the aply-titled Fast and Furious should have you looking for something magical in 2009. The promise of action shouldn't be in short-supply when this movie hits, especially with the triumphant return of Vin Diesel.
do the jump:
Read More »I've been leaving out mention of one revolutionary title. Well maybe not revolutionary but funny perhaps? The creators of Homestar Runner, the almost 9 year old Flash internet cartoon, and developer Telltale Games have produced a episodic game called Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People for the WiiWare service and Windows on the PC. Crazy surreal internet humor is all over this creation judging by the title alone. With the first episode, "Homestar Ruiner", already released on August 11th, the new episode "Strong Badia the Free" is ready for September. Let's see what The Brothers Chaps (Matt and Mike) and Telltale Games have come up with now.
I want to get you pumped up for the September 7th release of Spore for the Mac, PC, and DS. So here's a trailer of the Civilization stage for you to chew on. Will Will Wright be right? All signs point to yes. Expect big DS sales of this title.
Want a taste of the latest Valve production, Left 4 Dead? Not blowing you any steam. This multiplayer cooperative first person shooter gets to the source of horror. Not digging my corny puns? Well then check out this video and judge for yourself.
There's no time like the present - unless you're an insatiable retro-fanatic and yearn for the days of yesterday. And judging by the numbers that Capcom's recent HD-redo Bionic Commando Rearmed put up, there's plenty of you out there. Count us among the fans, as our recent Impression of the game was simply busting with praise, and its all well-earned. The lovable but overly-confident Ben Judd over at the official website let it slip that the digital download title for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC sold a staggering 130,000 digital copies in its first week. Yowzers!
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This tidbit fresh out of the rumormill has mentions of the long talked about price cuts and Motion Control finally making its way to a 360 nearest you. According to the guys over at Xbox 360 Fanboy and a source close to Microsoft's Marketing Department says that the company is planning on cutting the price of the Arcade bundle to $199 to directly compete with the Wii, and gain some much-needed family-friendly appeal in the process. The speculated package is suppose to come with a Xbox 360 Arcade, 512MB memory card, A preinstalled fall update of the latest dashboard, and get this: a motion controller with a family oriented game pak that puts the latest peripheral to good use; not only that but the motion controller will operate with existing 360 consoles and will be sold seperately if you want to pick up additional ones.
Of course before you get excited these are all rumors taken from multiple venues but the word is these events are supposed to happen just in time for the 2008 Holiday Season. There should be some anticipation of some much-desired price drops if they do happen, but we'll keep our eyes peeled on the other stuff.