GAME Australia Lays Off 281 Employees, Closes 60 Stores 
How Diablo III's Always-On Internet Requirement Makes It A Better Game GAME: No Buyers Yet, Crisis To Drag On For Another Month 
Have Your Say On Video Game Pricing 
35,000 Telstra Passwords Reset After Games Services Hacked 
Dragon's Dogma: The Kotaku Review The sales charts don’t lie. Britain loves them some Nintendo. ChartTrack, keepers of Britain’s secret, highly classified gaming sales data, have released some sales ratios to the press. No hard numbers, of course, the public can’t be trusted with those, but if ratios are all we got then ratios are what we’ll talk about. Seems Nintendo Will have sold its millionth Wii in Britain within the next month, which will also see it surpass the GameCube’s all-time sales in the country (only ever sold a mil), despite being on the shelf for less than a year. Poor Cube. Also of note is the “fact” (can’t support it with numbers, see) the Wii is apparently outselling the 360 4:1, and the PS3 6:1. Yes, yes, itprintsmoney.gif. Wii nearly UK’s best seller [Eurogamer]
All the Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts you could ever want. And buy. On August 20th at 6pm PST, the Official Square Enix Online Merchandise Store opens its doors to sell, well, Square Enix merchandise. Feature products include Final Fantasy XII Play Arts Judge Magister Gabranth and a limited edition Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Sculpture Arts Sephiroth and Could Strife. Back at E3, we spoke to Square about the online store. The impetus for opening it? The company hopes to regulate pricing on its collectibles goods outside Japan. That, and make a crap load of cash.
Thanks, Tarthus!
With retailer breaking the BioShock street date, some lucky bastards have picked up the game. Hate them. I sure do! When the highly anticipated first-person-shoot is finally released on August 21, remember one thing: Save. And save often. Don’t believe me? Here’s 2K Boston/2K Australia honcho Ken Levine (dude in pic) explaining why: First of all, it’s really one of those games where you’ll want to save often — not because you die constantly, but because you’re going to want to replay rooms to try things a different way.
Sound advice! Me, I’m giddy about this game, playing the demo loads and replaying the crap out of it. It’s pretty spooky, isn’t it? Not surprising that Levine says, “We took a lot of inspiration from The Shining when making the game.” Kubrick would be proud. BioShock Interview [GameSpot]
If Korean MMORPG MapleStory is good enough for a DS game, damn skippy it should be get a Japanese anime. It is! Madhouse Studios (Last Order: Final Fantasy VII, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust) will do the animation duties, and the upcoming series will kick off on TV Tokyo on Sunday, October 7th at 8:30am. Mark your calendars! Maple Anime [MOON PHASE via AnimeNewsNetwork]
Shame about that Manhunt 2 brouhaha. The game was a little much for consoles, snagging an Adults Only rating in the US and being rejected by the UK and Ireland. But Rockstar isn’t giving up. So neither should you! The company has stated it will eventually release the game, and earlier this month, Rockstar filed an appeal to contest the UK decision. Gordon Hall, boss of Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories studio Rockstar Leeds, says the industrial ought to stand by the company as it fights the good fight:
…the wider issue attacks our entire industry. We need to teach people that games are an art form — they are more artistic than film. I think the games industry should rally behind us, because there will come a time when we’ll all have an idea that’s a little edgy, and we need to have the freedoms to express it.
First we saw some prototype shots. Then Mike caught a glimpse of these at Comic Con, but they were behind glass display cases. Which makes it hard for us internet types to get a good, clean look at them. Handily, NECA have just released proper studio shots of their Castlevania line of toys. My socks? Totally rocked.
Hi-Res Images For Neca’s Player Select Castlevania Figures [TNI]
What’s with you people? What, you don’t have a PC that can run WoW? Rubbish, everyone does. Quit hassling Blizzard about a console version of World of Warcraft, the poor guys must be sick of it by now. In response to what’s gotta be the 15,143,739th time someone’s asked them this, a Blizzard rep has posted on the official boards: We’re madly in love with the PC and Mac platforms, and there are no plans at this time to bring World of Warcraft to any other platforms.
See? Madly in love. With both the platforms and the cash money. Think they’re going to be bothered with console ports just for the 6 people who don’t have a PC that can run WoW? No. They’ve got fast, expensive cars to race and casinos to frequent. When does the PS3 version come out? [WoW Forums, via Game|Life]
With God of War, David Jaffe created a big time franchise for Sony. And he knows it. Where do you go from there? For me, once God of War finished, I felt I had sort of done all I could do as a Sony employee. I felt like there was nowhere else really for me to go in terms of advancement — not just career advancement — but sort of personal, spiritual, soulful advancement.
Makes sense. Instead of continuing at Sony Computer Entertainment, Jaffe co-founded a studio in Utah. Utah?
It’s no secret that the screenshots marketing departments distribute are regularly touched up by someone in the art department. As they’re often not indicative of actual gameplay, what’s the harm? None. No one wants to look at ugly screenshots. However, today’s screenshot debacle comes from EA’s NBA Live 08, also famous for the hilarious single-wheeled car shot from The Godfather. Can’t quite see what the hubbub is about, bub? Make the jumpshot for a detailed pic.
BioShock’s setting is unique. A decaying, art deco underwater dystopia is not something we run through and/or blow up every day. And the game’s all the better for it! Wasn’t always so original, though. It used to be set on a tropical island. With Nazis. Senior Designer Joe McDonagh: Every studio has its own dynamic, but we believe that original games require a lot of iteration and sudden changes of direction. It can be terrifying and ageing at times. But it’s impossible to sit down at the start of a project and say this game will be XYZ and it will be fun. Bioshock for instance started out on a tropical island with Nazis.
The island, that’s OK, Far Cry’s lazy sunsets were the star of that little show, but Nazis? Unless they’re flying zeppelins, thanks, we’ve had our fill. Smart move, Irrational. Bioshock began “on a tropical island with Nazis” [CVG]
