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Dragon's Dogma: The Kotaku Review Barbie, everyone’s favourite anatomically impossible plasticine play thing now has her own MMO: BarbieGirls. Following in the footsteps of things like Club Penguin, just a lot pinker and more irritating, it’s a brilliant marketing strategy and already boasts 4 million users. And they haven’t even gone out of beta yet. And continue to sign up new users at the rate of 45,000 a day. Wow. Not to be left behind, Bratz – the trashier, more badly made up version of Barbie – is also opening their own Be-Bratz MMO.
Well it took long enough, but it looks as if Dead Rising has finally become available as an Xbox 360 Platinum Hit (in the States) with a fairly modest price tag of $US30. I made a few calls around and no stores seem to be carrying it yet, but if you want to get your zombie killing mitts on it now, you can do so through the Capcom Store.
I love Dead Rising and while many may disagree with me, it was a total system seller for me. It’s a great game and if you haven’t already checked it out, now’s your chance to do it on the cheap. Just make sure you have one of them fancy HD TVs or a magnifying glass for that text. Ouch.
Starbucks may have relinquished its spot in the Forbidden City, but Nestle is moving its Nescafe into internet cafes all over China, thanks to a strategic initiative with Beijing Perfect World (the company behind several big MMORPGs in China). This was apparently announced last month and I somehow missed it, but I do love Chinese game company press releases so – they manage to make everything sound so fabulous in an overly dramatic way. Nestle will be partnering up to offer prizes to MMO-addicted youngsters, presumably to ensure their choice for fuelling gaming marathons is Nestle’s “deliciously tasty coffee.” Full release after the jump.
Ah, the ever present gaming tattoo. Some are good, some are bad and some are just meh. This one however is pretty damned cool and extremely well executed. The guy (A faithful Kotakuite by the name of Sam) is apparently going to have a Zelda themed sleeve on the other arm and eventually Metroid piece on his chest. He also plans on going back and finishing the Mario sleeve to the wrist. That’s an awful lot of ink on such a skinny arm. How did they fit that all on there? Impressive! Make the jump for a few more shots.
[Thanks, Chris!]
We’ve already covered Robbie Cooper’s book Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators, which consists of portraits of people and their online avatars, but the Wall Street Journal has an interesting little Q&A with Cooper and Tracy Spaight, a contributor to the volume. The most discussed question is why – with the theoretical possibilities of virtual worlds – do people stick to the same old, same old? WSJ.com: Why do we tend to see the same narrative archetypes in these games?
During Game Head’s coverage of Comic Con, they got a chance to talk briefly with David Jaffe about his move from Sony and what games he will be working on in the future. But the real magic in this clip comes at about the three minute mark where Jaffe is introduced to director (and I use the term very lightly) Uwe Boll. Cringe in horror as the two discuss their respective internet woes and how to best handle them. Then run screaming from the room as the interviewer tries to set up a meeting of the minds and actually dares to suggest that Boll should direct the God of War movie.
And the rivers ran red with blood.
The Halo 3 marketing steamroller has only just begun to chug to life an already we’ve begun to be inundated with every kind of product placement and cross promotion we can think of. It has it’s own Zune, 360 model, action figures (or if they don’t move, figurines or statuettes, take your pick), as well as promotions with such heavy hitters as Pontiac, Burger King, Comcast and 7- “we promote everything” 11. Mountain Dew has even gone so far as to create a new soda branded to the game. But, the good folks at Mountain Dew won’t just be satisfied with filling your body with twenty times the caffeine in the name of video games, they want to help you read your favourite news headlines too.
Microsoft and Mountain Dew have to teamed up to bring you the Halo 3 RSS Reader so you can now see what’s happening around the web quickly, easily and Halo-y. Imagine the excitement as you file through your links with this awesome logo shaped reader with it’s…
Ok, I’m done.
The Halo 3 RSS Reader [Xbox.com] [via Major Nelson]
It was a week full of Xbox 360 news this time around for Kotaku Originals. The eldest of the “next gen” consoles got a price drop, a rise in sales, a bundle, a tiny system update and an HDMI output. Our little boy is growing up!
