Thursday, December 20, 2007
News
Activision Raise Forecasts, Hyped For More Cash Money
11:00PM Luke Plunkett | Activision are top dogs, and they’re certainly not too modest to hold off on letting us know. First we get some chest-thumping, now we get some pocket-jingling: they’ve raised their net revenue forecasts for the quarter up from $US 1.225 billion to $US 1.375 billion, citing crazy sales of Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero III. They also took the time to mention their market share: they now account for 16.8% of game sales, which is more than double what it was last Christmas. Normally we’d say pride comes before a fall, but in this case it’s probably just coming in ahead of the trucks full of money. Activision raises outlook on holiday demand [Reuters] More »
GHIII Gets European Content, Free Christmas Song
10:30PM Luke Plunkett | As promised, some Europe-specific downloadable content has arrived for Guitar Hero III. Sadly, it hasn’t come in the form of Entombed, Electric Wizard or Nana Mouskouri, but in some bands that are hard to remember and even harder to pronounce. There’s Extremoduro’s “So Payaso”, Die Fantastischen Vier’s (pictured) “Ernten Was Wir Säen” and, easier on our crude English-speaking tongues, Trust’s “Antisocial”. Each are 200 points, and if you’re curious, are available everywhere, not just in the old world. A fourth track, the suitable holiday-themed “We Three Kings”, is free. Guitar Hero III Tracks (one free) [Microsoft] [Image] More »
News
GTAIV Gets Unofficial Release Date
10:00PM Luke Plunkett | British trade types MCV have it on very good authority that Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV will be released in the UK on April 25. While Rockstar won’t comment on the matter, as it’s “rumour and speculation”, MCV cite sources “close to the game’s publisher”. In other words, most likely a bunch of guys who work for Take-Two. While this only pertains to the game’s UK release, it’s worth remembering previous GTA titles have launched almost simultaneously in North American and PAL markets. April 25th UK release for GTA IV [MCV] More »
Tekken Movie Director Named
9:00PM Luke Plunkett | The Tekken movie now has a director. Dwight Little has been appointed by Crystal Sky Pictures, and will be brining with him a tradition for excellence in martial arts motion pictures. He directed Rapid Fire, for example. And Marked for Death. Oh, and it’s not a martial arts flick, but he also did Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid. Little is relishing the chance to be involved with such a weighty, AAA project, telling Variety: It’s a gladiator story, but the videogame has a complicated enough storyline that it provides the template for a martial arts spectacular. Of course it does, Dwight. Little gets behind ‘Tekken’ movie [Variety] More »
Can’t Find A Wii? Blame College Football
8:00PM Luke Plunkett | Every year, the organisers of college football’s various bowl games are allowed to spend some cash on the players taking part. It’s part souvenir hunt, part pissing contest between the officials. This year, amongst the cameras and shopping sprees and hats and monogrammed travel bags was news that three bowls – Holiday, Allstate BCS National Championship and Valero Alamo – were getting Wiis for the competing teams. And the competing team’s staff. And then some. All told, each bowl committee were able to get hold of around 250 Wiis. Each. That’s 750 Wiis out of the retail channel. If you’re going to vent your furious spleens, we’d advice you do so here. It’s safer than doing it in-person. Nintendo Wiis, tech gifts top 2007’s best bowl prizes [ESPN] [Image: Getty Images] More »
Japan Gets Devil May Cry 4 PS3 Bundle
7:00PM Luke Plunkett | What sells in Japan? That’s right. Hardware bundles. So come January 31, Japan will be getting another hardware bundle, this one pairing Devil May Cry 4 with the 40GB PS3. Oh, you’ll also get a Blu-Ray full of what sounds like (hey, Ash is on holidays, I’m doing my best) Devil May Cry 4 gameplay footage, cut together to form a story reel. It’ll sell for ¥47,800, and you can get the PS3 in both colours (black, ceramic white). More »
Canada Getting “Monster” Rock Band DLC
6:00PM Luke Plunkett | So Canada gets Rock Band a little late. Big whoop. The entire PAL market is also without the game, and don’t even have the vaguest of dates to pin their collective hopes on. So quit your whining. To help you quit, you should know that because you’re a little behind on the game’s DLC, the Canadian Xbox Live marketplace will be playing catch-up, a Harmonix rep posting on the game’s official forums: As of today I am hearing that Microsoft plans on releasing the DLC in Canada on the 20th through the marketplace. I believe this will be a monster release of every song we’ve put out so far as DLC for the game. Great! Except…hands up how many Canadians will actually have a copy by tomorrow? That’s what we thought. [Rock Band Forums, thanks Jaemeel] More »
Soft Drink Says “Sorry” To Videogames
5:18PM Luke Plunkett | Yesterday, Soft drinks totally hated videogames. Was trying to blame games, and not soft drinks, for fat kids. Imagine that! Today, though, soft drink is sorry. It didn’t mean to single out videogames. It’s all a big misunderstanding! Soft drink would never hate on vieogames. How do we know this? Because soft drink (ie American Beverage Association vice president Kevin Keane) contacted us to set the record straight. More »
We Get It, Ninja Gaiden II Is Very Messy
4:32PM Luke Plunkett | Deary me. Would you look at all that crimson. I really don’t want to keep posting Ninja Gaiden II screenshots just to talk about the blood, but really, Itagaki, you leave me no choice. Then again, subtlety was never your strong-point. More »
Guitar Hero III For PC & Mac Gets Aussie Price & Date
3:40PM Logan Booker | With all the nonsense Activision’s pulled this year, it’s nice to finally have some good news to report about one of its products. It’s just a shame the news isn’t from Activision, and it’s about a product the publisher isn’t distributing.
Try & Byte today let us know that the PC/Mac version of Guitar Hero III, which we found out had its release delayed in Australia, should arrive on our shores in early January. T&B is aiming for the first week of 2008, but we’ll have to wait and see.
The pack, which includes the game and guitar, comes in at $159.99, putting it in the same price bracket as the console versions.
Guess it’s time to retire Frets on Fire? More » 
