Ghostbusters canned?

In spite if the fact that the video games industry looks healthier than ever, some studios are still feeling the pinch.  After the coming together of Activsion and Blizzard it looks like they have decided to have a bit of a cull.  First in the firing line are Vivendi Games Mobile and Sierra Online.  They have been defined as “non-strategic business units”.  Ouch.   Mike Griffith, Activision publishing CEo had this to say;

“We have conducted a thorough review of Vivendi Games’ brand portfolio and are retaining those franchises and titles that are a strong fit with out long-term product strategy.”

Seemingly those games that do not fit that criteria include  Terminal Reality, Ghostbusters, 50: Cent: Blood on the Sand from Swordfish and Double Fine’s Brutal Legend.  I must admit that I was looking forward to seeing how Ghostbusters turned out.  Here’s hoping that another publisher picks it up.  As for 50: Cent?  Not so much.

source: gamesindutry.biz

PS3 gets more homebrew

A few weeks ago some clever people managed to allow a PS3 to access a basic shoot em up running using Java. It was never going to end there though was it? Enter PS3 friendly versions of Pong and Snake. This is not going to keep you away from GRID or Call of Duty 4, but it’s interesting to see how quickly some clever folk have been able to exploit the opportunities that Java represents. It will be even more interesting to see where this goes next. There already Java emulators for lots of systems around, so who knows, maybe we will be playing Manic Miner on the PS3 soon…?

Have a look at the Pong and Snake “ports” here.

Jack Tretton: Better than you thought

So Jack Tretton has become famous for his E3 delivery – his ever-so-slightly nervous presenting style isn’t polished, but it is earnest. He’s much more credible one-to-one however… as the following videos show.

Here’s a couple of post-conference interviews you may have missed. Jack makes some very interesting points – that Sony have invested in their internal studios precisely because the age of the big thirdparty exclusive is over… and that for what Microsoft paid to secure exclusive DLC for Grand Theft Auto ($50 million), Sony made Resistance 2. Which would you rather have? Jack says he’d rather have R2 than exclusive DLC. We agree.

Part One:

Another interesting point made in part deux, is that when Sony was thinking about PS3, it had the luxury of knowing PS2 was still successful and that afforded it a little room to think further ahead – especially given that that original Xbox actually had to be killed off to make room for 360. Lest we forget that PS2 is still on the shelves of major retailers across the globe… Xbox and Gamecube…? Not so much.

Also… bombshells… Sony would consider a sales target of 20million consoles a ‘huge disappointment’ – that’s the lifetime sales of the first Xbox, right there.  Jack acknowledges a 4 million system gap between 360 and PS3 in the states – but goes on to suggest that their long term ambition is to sell 140 million PS3′s – so 4 million in year two isn’t causing anyone any lost sleep… Except for Square Enix, maybe?

Anyway, Jack, I like you – you’re concise, don’t resort to cheap shots… well, not too much…  and unlike David Reeves from Sony Europe (shudder) I suspect you’re actually human.

Part Two:

The rest of the year laid bare

 

So, today I’ve worked out what I’m buying for the rest of the year… there’s a scary amount of quality games coming out and hence I’ve had to be realistic.

Firstly though, let’s get this irrelevant stuff out of the way. By this, of course, i  mean Nintendo. In the gif, please consider hardcore gamers on the right, and Nintendo on the left .

Seriously… It’s gotten to the point now where if no gamer ever bought a Nintendo ‘game’ ever again, Nintendo wouldn’t notice the difference in their sales.

I don’t even know what they showed at E3… that would’ve been unthinkable a few years ago.

This year then… The following will be floating my boat;

• July 31st – Pixel Junk Eden
• ‘Soon’ – Ratchet and Clank: Q4B
• 26/09/2008 – Mirror’s Edge
• Q4 – LittleBigPlanet
• Q4 – BioShock
• Q4 – Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
• November – Resistance 2
• 07/11/2008 – Prince of Persia
• When it stops giving people seizures – Wipeout HD
• If Kaz Hirai is happy – Home

That, my friends, is the rest of the year wrapped up VERY nicely! You should seek out the latest Prince of Persia next-gen footage – it’s absolutely STUNNING. Imagine Assasin’s Creed remade by Studio Ghibli, crossed with Jet Set Radio and the Metroid/Zelda explore -> gain ability -> re-explore ethic.

Basically: DO WANT.

Too Human co-op video

I enjoyed the single player demo of Too Human. A lot. But the prospect of playing the game co-op stylee over XBL is even tastier. Here is a new video showing the co-op mode in action. The game is due to land in Europe on August 29th, some 25 years after work on it began. Well, maybe not 25 years, but it’s been a while. Anyway like I say I loved the demo and I like a lot of what Denis Dyackhas to say about the industry. I hope the game does well, though I suspect that the orks may not be so keen..

source: xb360fb

Sony: forget e3, we will rock Leipzig

And so the hype wagon trundles on unabated. After Sony’s moribund showing at e3 David Reeves (president of SCEE) is predicting that Leipzig will be a blockbuster event. Ensure that your PR goggles are securely in place before reading these quotes…

“It’s not just Euro-centric – there will be some global announcements,…The announcements we make will be more important for the local markets that come to Leipzig.”

“And it’s not just Leipzig, it’s Game Convention – if we had one in London we’d do it in London. We have a number of things which is real blockbuster stuff for Europe.”

“We feel now that we have a pattern globally which is E3, Tokyo Games Show and Leipzig – it gives us three bites of the cherry to come out with our announcements. We cannot tailor all our announcements to July.”

Blimey, the fun just keeps on coming. Could it be that SCEE are desperate to show up SCEA’s e3 performance? Or will this be another show where we see the same games and learn nothing new? Time will tell folks, but to be honest here at the luxury Fragcast offices we are hyped out. Even Genki. So thanks for the build up David, but we’ll beleive it when we see it mate.

source: mcvuk

Testing wordpress

Do not see me…

Wipeout HD delay explained

We have been a little concerned that Wipeout HD seems to have disappeared. We were expecting at least a glimpse at E3, but no, nothing. Then it transpired that there were “technical issues” with the game, which made us even more worried. Well it turns out that, for once, this is a delay that is completely justified. The game has failed Epilepsy tests and is now being re-engineered. What does that mean? A long delay we reckon. Sony haven’t said that this is slipping to next year, but it looks as if that might be the net result.

source: cvg

TimeSplitters Teasers

You just have to say TimeSplitters and we go a bit funny. Forget Haze, (no, really) TimeSplitters is what we love Free Radical for. So when our most secret and underground informant sent us these teasing images… well we had to share. Are we excited about this game? We’ll let you know when the blood returns to our heads….

1942 on XBLA this week

Oh yes oh yes!! This week sees the arcade classic 1942 come to Xbox Live Arcade, in all its HD glory. Brilliant!! Also out this week is Go! Go! Break Steady, which is a rhythm game in the style of Boom! Boom! Rocket.  If nothing else it’s nice to see that the humble exclamation mark is still being used so effectively on Xbox Live.  Did I mention that 1942 is out too?  800 points each folks.  Roll on Wednesday!!

source: major nelson