Friday, October 5, 2007
Sony’s New… POP?
11:00PM Luke Plunkett | Spotted at the Royal Show in Perth, Western Australia. May not boast the PlayStation Portable’s clean lines or shiny surface, but it does GAME. Oh, and it RADIOS, too. No idea why a simple LCD game needs the PSP’s POP’s full array of dazzling multimedia capabilities on display, but it must be some… racer? Is it a racer, or a shooter? Whatever. I bet it’s awesome. [thanks Scotto!] More »
$1 BILLION Blown On Virtual World Investment
10:20PM Luke Plunkett | You know what they say: a fool and his money are easily parted. Especially when there are a bunch of fools sitting together around a boardroom table, convincing each other that virtual worlds are hot, and that they should blow millions investing in them. Which is exactly what’s happening! A study by Virtual Worlds Management reckons $US 1 billion has been invested into “virtual worlds” over the past year. And no, they don’t mean WoW. They mean Second Life. They also mean the kind of things you see in flash ads, with crudely-drawn avatars and promise you the ability to “chat with friends”. You know, the kinds of things you and everyone else ignore because they look like a bag of shit stuffed full of pointy, rusty nails. Money well wasted, gents! $1 billion invested in virtual worlds in past 12 months – study [Gamesindustry.biz] More »
Aussie Sales Charts
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | And what do you know, there’s Halo 3 at the top. Thing sold 70,000 copies in its first week, which already has it as the #2-selling 360 game of all time down here. I’d imagine it’ll have caught Gears by this time next week. Equally unsurprising are the rest of the charts, which apart from a few lost lambs are all FIFA and SingStar. Really, three FIFAs and two SingStars? Must be getting close to Christmas. 1) Halo 3 2) FIFA 08 (PS2) 3) SingStar Rock Ballads (Game) 4) FIFA 08 (PS3) 5) Super Paper Mario 6) FIFA 08 (360) 7) More Brain Training 8) SingStar 90s (Game) 9) Ratatouille (PS2) 10) Heavenly Sword [charts provided by GfK] More »
Razer’s New Gaming Keyboard
9:00PM Brian Crecente | Razer showed off a new gaming keyboard and headset toay at the World Cyber Games 2007 Grand Finals in Seattle this week. The Lycosa has backlit keys, super-fast response times and a number of other gaming features while the Piranha supports stereo sound and features a noise-filtering microphone. I’m not so sure about Razer. I’ve been using their DeathAdder mouse for awhile now and not only does it not seem that sensitive to me, it actually sometimes acts up. I also tested out their Barracuda sound card and headphones and both have major issues, so I’ve stopped using them. I’m starting to suspect that they make average products and just slap a neat name on it. What sort of experience have you had with their products? More »
British Industry Types Call For PS2 Price-Cut
8:30PM Luke Plunkett | Amidst all this hot and heavy talk of PS3 prices, we’ve all forgotten the trusty old PS2 is just about due for one final, Christmas-2007-themed price cut. Everyone except Britain, that is, with several prominent industry and retail figures calling for a cut. One is Ubisoft UK managing director Rob Cooper: It’s already at an attractive price, but a reduction on hardware and software would undoubtedly prove an extremely tempting purchase to the more casual gamer and family member. True words. SCEE’s response? There are no immediate plans to cut the price. We still think PS2 offers tremendous value for money. Half a denial, then, but we all know how Sony roll. Trade calls for pre-Xmas PS2 price reduction [MCV] More »
The Wii Inspires Students To Care Where They Live
8:00PM Mark Wilson | David Brantley is a teacher at Cumberland Elementary. An otherwise normal guy, Brentley is the first school teacher in his district (and many others we suspect) to realise that the Wii’s forecast and news globe could be a great learning tool in the classroom, engaging students more than traditional maps. As Brantley puts it: We do everything that’s traditionally done… But as soon as we’ve done a little bit and they know it, we can turn around and make it a game and have fun. The investment for a Wii is just $250, which even under tight school budgets, is probably not much less attainable than a new standard globe. And speaking from personal experience, even though I know my geography as well as the next guy, the Wii’s news mapping puts stories in a context I otherwise don’t fully process. Now if it were only efficient enough to use in blogging… Game system lowers learning curve at Cumberland [journal&courier] [image] More »
Japanese Devs Explain Why Japan Hates The 360
7:30PM Luke Plunkett | We all know Japan hates the 360. We’ve all got our theories on why, too, but really, they’re more like opinions. Few of you reading this are Japanese, even fewer of you make games specifically for the Japanese market. Which makes this GameSpot piece all the more interesting: they asked a whole bunch of Japanese devs just what they think is wrong with the 360. Soul Calibur IV lead programmer Masaaki Hoshino In order to succeed in Japan, [Microsoft] needs Japan-created content, not just a lot of foreign games that have been >> localised Anonymous Ace Combat 6 developer Japanese players don’t want challenging, stressful, difficult games. Japanese players would rather have role-playing games with a slow tempo, where they are led and shown what to do. So, maybe games like Blue Dragon will start to change things. When more of those kind of games come on to the market, then I think more Japanese players will accept the 360. Anonymous designer People think [foreign games] are difficult and there’s no guidance on how to clear the objectives. Now that has changed, and they are much easier to play, but this bias remains among Japanese gamers. Infinite Undiscovery director Hiroshi Ogawa I think in the previous generation that when it was the Xbox versus the PlayStation 2, Microsoft was unable to put out many RPGs. They weren’t able to put out the type of games Japanese players really play. And the resistance to 360 may be some holdover from that. My 2 cents follows: We heard Ryan Payton talking about how Metal Gear Solid 4, one of the biggest titles coming out of Japan, had been completely “westernised”. And not just a regular old localisation, everything from its cameras to its controls had taken the Western market into consideration. How many Western titles return the favour? Spot On: Japanese devs sound off on 360 [GameSpot] More »
Japanese Style Xbox 360 Faceplates
7:00PM Brian Ashcraft | With all this Halo 3 craziness in Japan (yes, those are pigs flying), thought it might be a good chance to show some Japanese-style faceplates. I wish I had close-ups of these so I could do a gallery, but from what I can see, they look, well, like typical anime stuff, but w/e! There is a definite Xbox 360 hardcore contingent in Japan — all of which now own Halo 3, it seems. Japanese Faceplates [Neoä¾] More »
Google’s Second Life/Home Project Out This Year?
6:30PM Luke Plunkett | There’s been whispers here and there before, but those were a while ago and nothing came of them. Now though, more whispers. New whispers (OK, a week or so old, but it’s news to me). Whispering about Google, and how they might be about ready to kick off an online community… gaming… advertising… thing. Students at Arizona State University have been invited to take part in testing for an online community/game due to be launched by a “major internet company” later this year. The Google link comes from the fact they’re a somewhat major internet company, as well as close links between the company and ASU in the past. It’s also rumoured/a given that Google’s service would make use of Google Maps, Google Earth and probably every other nifty little application the company’s come up with over the years. Google Ads included. Google testing “My World” for launch later this year [Ars Technica, via The Guardian] More »
