Microsoft Responds To Reports Of Xbox Live Account 'Jacking' 
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 Yoshinori Kitase, director of Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Trigger, and fellow colleague Tetsuya Nomura, character designer for FFVII, are rumoured to be bitter rivals. Word has it that since the two are unable to work together, each of them are making separate FFXIII games with Kitase producing Final Fantasy XIII and Nomura directing Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Not so! says Kitase. He tells LEVEL magazine:
Imagine a world where online gaming was multi-platform. Truly multi-platform. There was no XBLA or PSN or whatever. Just the internet and your game console or PC and one handle that jives with everything. Sounds pretty great! Says Adam Boyes, development director for Capcom USA:
For us it’s about getting it to as many people as humanly possible. In an ideal world all the back ends would talk to each other so people could compete together and play together. Simply having a different platform segments the market for multiplayer… With PC we’re going across to all the different digital distribution and delivery companies and so again it’s about reaching as many people as possible. When you choose one partner it segments the marketplace for us.
It’s a shame more companies don’t think like Capcom. There’d be fewer insane fanboys, you know.
Home platforms are segmenting multiplayer market – Capcom [GamesIndustry]
Even though Bionic Commando: Rearmed has been delayed, the soundtrack hasn’t! The music is available for purchase on places like iTunes and Sumthing Digital. Money-hating Bionic Commando producer Ben Judd, who allowed gamers to chose a cheaper price point for BCR, once again explains why he hates money:
The Bathing Ape/Nintendo collaboration on a limited run of DS consoles was a popular one. No, actually, not popular. Crazy popular. So one can only imagine the fervour Japanese collectors are going to whip themselves into for this: a gold one. Yes, same console, same print, just this time, it’s gold, which is the universal symbol for “betterer and more expensive”. Get a good look at it, because you’ll never own one. Ever.
Crummy magazine scan time! That’s SFIV concept art for Fei Long and Dan. Ah, yes, Dan. After the jump, there’s Street Fighter IV boss Seth “The Puppet Master”, who is the CEO of Shadowloo’s weapons division S.I.N. His body has been modified using cutting-edge technology.
A memorial service shall be held next Tuesday. Flowers and donations may be forwarded to Vicarious Visions and Activision Corp. Guitar Hero is survived by its sole sibling, Rock Band. Rest In Peace.
[Thanks Josh!]
English-for-otaku book Moetan is getting a DS game. Because DS owning nerds should learn English, too. Every day, players can learn ten new words — words like “lunatic”! Then after three weeks, players will be tested on their knowledge. And depending on the test score, players can then touch the game’s heroines. (So think typical DS English learning game meets Doki Doki Majo Shinpan.) Hit the jump for a MAXIMUM RISKY look at the game’s transformation scene with the game’s 17 year-old main character. There’s butt crackage and a duck in a hat. Might be NSFW.
Want to see a sales chart sans Wii Fit? Check out Britain’s. While the balance trainer made it to #3 last week, this week, it comes in at #40. And we only bother with the top 10 around here. I know, it was because the thing is completely sold out, but a drop’s a drop, excuses be damned. As for games that could be put on retail shelves, both GTA IV versions sit comfortably atop the charts, presiding over a that rarest of beats – a PC game (well played, Age of Conan) – and…Haze. Oh dear. All of which outsold Rock Band, however, which could only make its too-expensive debut at #6.
World War II? Stick a fork in it. It’s done. Was done by 2006. Hell, it was done by 2004. But nobody tell Burut Creative, OK? Otherwise they might cancel this cracker of a project. And I promise you. This plot summary is real.
It is April 1945…The fall of the Nazi rule is imminent…Still, a tightly knit group of SS generals and officers, involved in the most heinous and dark deeds, is seeking for a way to save the remnants of the Third Empire. They have conspired to move the leaders of the Reich, together with precious resources and classified equipment, to a remote hideout in the Tibet mountains. There, in the heart of Asia, they can wait for their time, kept safe by the tireless vigilance of zombie monstrosities created in the Nazi secret labs.
From the product page, it looks like one of those cheap, nutty (yet brilliant for it) Eastern European shooters. If the game comes in at under $US 20 (no price yet) and can play out as corny as that plot outline, it could seriously be worth a look for anyone still stuck on that “can games do B-grade” argument from a few months back.
UberSoldier 2 [Product Page]
