Harley Quinn's Revenge Is Batman: Arkham City's Bad New Ending 
High Scores And Egos: There's Always A Bigger Doodle 
The Last Moments Of GAME 
How Bad User Interfaces Are Ruining Video Games And Other Wonderful Things 
She Tried To Make Good Video Games For Girls, Whatever That Meant 
The Story Of Doodle Jump: Brotherly Love And Digital Snacks Remember how Atari didn’t want to file their quarterly financial reports? Course you don’t. It’s why we can put links into sentences like that. Anyways, they held off filing them even though they weren’t allowed to, presumably because the news was bad, and were nearly de-listed from the stock exchange as a result. Well, they were given until today to file their reports, so file them Atari did, and the news is…well, yes, bad. They lost $US 11.9 million for the quarter, up over 50% from the same time last year. Things are so awful that in it’s quarterly report, it’s noted that the company had “substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern”. So do we! Atari reports 11.9 million Q1 loss [Gamesindustry.biz]
See that? That is the PlayStation Home logo. You’ve seen it before, and you’d probably recognise it when you were out and about. That’s exactly what happened to tipster Umbrae, who snapped this photo:
This was taken at Umbrae’s local Sharper Image retailer. We don’t know which logo came first, but damn, that PS Home logo looks so similar to this. Or perhaps, it’s the other way around. Coincidence or not? YOU DECIDE.
The Xbox? Nice machine, but like so many other bright young stars, it was cut down before its time. Not so for the 360! Microsoft have looked at how long the PS2 has stuck around, looked at how much money that’s made Sony and decided “yes, that’s a good idea, let’s do that”. Microsoft games division CFO Mindy Mount: Look at the PS2; they’ve gone long-time and seem to have pretty good legs on what they are doing…If we were able to do that, as CFO I think that’s great, because every year you draw it out you increase profitability.
We’ll take that to mean you don’t plan on completely abandoning the 360 the second its successor arrives, then! Microsoft sees long-life potential for Xbox 360 [Reuters]
Thought Metal Gear‘s Snake was a enough for Super Smash Bros. Brawl? Wrong! MG‘s Frank Jaeger, the Gray Fox, is joining the fray as an Assist Trophy. (Assist Trophies help or hurt the summoner, but aren’t playable.) Kinda unexpected for SSBB to get yet another Metal Gear Character. Hope the next one is Johnny Sasaki! There’s not enough diarrhea in gaming these days. New Trophy [Smash Bros. DOJO!! Thanks Joe!]
Earlier today, this week’s dashing Guest Editor Geoff Keighley liveblogged the investor presentation by Nintendo of America honcho Reggie Fils-Aime. Reggie had some UNKIND words for rivals Sony and Microsoft. When responding to an audience member question, he said:
The challenge that our competitors have is significant. They’ve gone down the path with building expensive machines that they lose money on. They’ve gone down the path with games that are hard to develop… They’ve put themselves in a box. I don’t know how they’re going to get out of it.
Nothing like investor smack talk! Reggie Presentation [MarketWatch, Thanks Sassy!]
Hollywood’s writers have officially gone on strike. Poor babies. Thing is, it’s more than just movie writers that will be cutting out on work for the next few weeks/months. TV shows are also affected, because people who belong to the Writers Guild of America write TV shows, too. Some even write games! But don’t worry. The high standards you associate with games writing won’t be touched by the strike, with the WGA telling IGN that games writers who are members fall outside “of the jurisdiction of the current strike”. Phew. Writer’s Strike: Will it Affect Videogames? [IGN]
Canada? Nice place. Nintendo of Canada? Fine. Nintendo of Canada’s new Wii campaign? Meh. Called “Get Up and Play!”, it “challenges” Canadian families to, you guessed it, get up and play. So clever. There’s a weekend challenge that does things like pits boys vs. girls or kids vs. adults and puts at stake things like “Taking out the garbage and recycling” and “Making lunch for the following week.” There are even certificates you can print out and online badges. Things Nintendo of Canada recommends to have on hand:
* Headbands * Wristbands * A ceremonial trophy * Water Bottles filled with ice-cold water * Easy to eat healthy snacks like dried fruit and granola bars * Digital camera to capture all the winning moments
Jeepers! This totally sounds like a gaming tournament that kids won’t be up for. Get Up [NoC via Wii Fanboy]
You probably didn’t notice/don’t care, but Gears of War was released on PC today. And like all good PC games, it’s launched with a problem. Namely, when you pop it in, Games for Windows Live updates itself, only to hit a snag and be unable to complete the update. There’s two ways to get around this. One is : The easiest is to simply shut down the game after the update is downloaded (you’ll know it’s safe because you’ll be back at the main menu, and not on the “Don’t shut down your PC while the update is being downloaded” screen). As soon as you close the game, the update will install automatically and you’re good to go.
The other is a little more complicated, so if you can’t manage the one above hit the link for more details.
Gears of War and the Games for Windows — LIVE Update [Gamerscore]
Zack & Wiki is a great game. And no one is buying it. Well, not no one, but not many people are! The game is posting shockingly low sales numbers. Could that be because the game makes people think? Or is it just that people are interested in the title? The game is challenging, but in a satisfying way. Capcom producer Hironobu Takeshita explains:
There are puzzles where, if you don’t look properly at the hints in the start, you’re going to be in trouble. All the answers that you need to solve the puzzles are there on the screen. There are some people who say they don’t understand the puzzles, but really, they’re not paying enough attention.
Hope poor Zack & Wiki sales doesn’t mean Capcom is giving up on games where you hafta use your noodle!
Interview [Game|Life, Thanks Rox!]
Tipsters MercSal and Bleek let us know this week that certain retailers, including GAME and EB Games, are providing a bonus disc for customers who preorder Bioware’s Mass Effect.
Bleek had this to say:
… The Pre-orderer receives a bonus CD with some nifty stuff such as an Exclusive Gamerpic set and Theme, 4 original tracks and some other stuff.
After searching the EB Games website for a good 30 minutes looking for additional info and finding zilch, I contacted EB directly. This was the response:
Our pre order deal for Mass Effect is on our website … [Those who preorder]will receive a free bonus disc, the details of the disc contents are on the site.
Thinking I must be daft, I went back and had another look. After clicking pretty much everywhere, I did find a reference to the preorder offer – in the catalogue.
However, as you can see from the picture above, it’s not that informative. In fact, it recommends you chat with staff in-store! Either I’m blind, or EB Games isn’t up-to-date with its own website content.
Is anyone able to confirm whether I need to visit my optometrist?
UPDATE: Still no info on the EB Games site, but Microsoft’s local presence has confirmed that “participating retailers” in Australia will be getting the preorder disc. List incoming.
