Saturday, August 4, 2007
European Sales Charts 23-29 July
3:30PM Kotaku US Edition | Many people are under the impression that the lovely Dr. Angela Merkel is the leader of Germany. WRONG. Nintendo own Germany. Nintendo dominate last week’s German charts, with 9 of the top 10 spots taken by DS and Wii games. Even Eidos’ Pony Friends makes the grade. Pony Friends! Amazing. And it’s a similar story in Spain, just without the Pony Friends. Click through for both charts. More »
Harmonix “Dying” To Release Rock Band
3:00PM Kotaku US Edition | Everyone is excited about Harmonix’s Rock Band. Hell, even Harmonix! And with good reason: The developer snagged three Game Critics Awards: Best of Show, Best Hardware/Peripheral and Best Social/Casual/Puzzle. The game has definite buzz. But when the heck will it be out? Alex Rigopulos, CEO and co-founder of Harmonix, says: All of the major systems are complete. As is normally the case in beta, there’s plenty of bug-fixing to be done, finishing off of various details, and lots of play-testing, polishing and tuning. We’re dying to cross the finish line and get this thing out into the world! Hurry, hurry, hurry Alex Interview [Level Up!] More »
Ziff Davis No Longer Courting 1UP Mag Buyers
2:40PM Kotaku US Edition | You know the Ziff Davis Group? They own 1UP, EGM and Games for Windows Magazine. If so, you probably also know Ziff have been trying to offload their gaming group for a while now. With no success. Nobody wants it! At least, not under their conditions: Ziff will only sell the group as a whole, print AND online, but buyers only want the online stuff. Well, Ziff now have a new CEO, Jason Young, who’s decided to scale back that particular operation: …while the sale process has been a very sharp focus over last 12 months, now that becomes less of a focus. The clearer focus is now on operating the business ourselves. Quite the about-face, that. Time to roll up those sleeves, Ziff. Young Appointed Ziff Davis CEO, Game Group Sale ‘Less Of A Focus’ [Gamasutra] More »
Details On The StarCraft II Single Player Campaign
2:20PM Kotaku US Edition | During the StarCraft II Live Demo at BlizzCon 07 today, Blizzard employees Rob Pardo and Dustin Browder walked attendees through the game in a semi-live demo with Browder revealing new unit features and Pardo spending a good portion of his time detailing the game’s single-player campaign. Pardo first walked us through the evolution of the single-player storytelling method from the original Warcraft through the original StarCraft through to Warcraft III, finally showing off portions of these elements in StarCraft II. More »
Left 4 Dead Flees 2007 For 2008
1:40PM Kotaku US Edition | Think we’re all on the same page as far as Left 4 Dead goes. It looks wonderful. Like it’s going to fulfil any of your zombie apocalypse fantasies left unfulfilled by Frank West’s daring exploits. Well, don’t get too excited. Valve reckons Turtle Rock’s game won’t be done until 2008. Good news is they reckon early 2008, bad news is that’s still next year. Still. Valve are involved. You had to expect this. Left 4 Dead slips to 2008 [Eurogamer] More »Announcement Roundup
1:20PM Kotaku US Edition | Wow, that was a packed keynote! During today’s QuakeCon keynote John Carmack unveiled a flurry of announcements including id Software’s newest franchise, Rage, and confirmation of a Return to Castle Wolfenstein movie. They also told the crowd that the new Wolfenstein game is being developed by Raven Software for the PC, 360 and PS3. The mutiplayer portion of the game is being worked on by Threewave Software. The breakdown after the jump: More »
Unreal Tournament III To Have Mouse/Keyboard Support
1:20PM Kotaku US Edition | Some gamers shudder at the idea of playing shooters with a controller. Some don’t care. But for those who do, good news! Epic knows this, and Epic cares. Unreal Tournament III for the PS3 will support keyboard/mouse gaming action. Over at Epic Game Forums, company honcho Mark Rein dishes: Folks, I checked with Steve Polge and he said that YES we are supporting keyboard and mouse in Unreal Tournament 3 on PS3. He is confident we are doing it in a way that will be balanced without feeling “gimped” for either side. We’ll also allow people to choose whether or not they want to allow mixed controller vs. keyboard/mouse games or not. I think you guys are going to love UT3! More details to come later. Debate time! Controller vs. keyboard/mouse: Which will you be using to play UT3 on the PS3 and why? Unreal Tournament III to use mouse/keyboard [UT Forums] More »
Warhawk Gets Date And Price
1:20PM Kotaku US Edition | Everyone’s favourite game developer Dylan Jobe just hopped onto the official Playstation Blog to announce both the date and the price(s) for the Warhawk. The game will go on sale in stores and on PSN on Aug. 28. The game will sell for $US39.99 online and $US59.99 in a store. The boxed version will come with some extra video content a manual and a Jabra Bluetooth headset. Jobe points out that the game, while multiplayer only, is quite robust and says he feels it can easily deliver more than 70 hours of enjoyment. Most beta testers logged more than 30 hours and many more than 70. Finally Jobe announced that the top 100 player in the beta are going to be receiving a fancy, very limited edition metal Warhawk Wings pin. Warhawk Goes Gold [Playstation Blog, thanks Freneil] More »
