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High Scores And Egos: There's Always A Bigger Doodle In an effort to further cut costs, Sony Computer Entertainment plans to further its influence in India. The company is transferring tech from its London studio to India and will also train local developers to balance costly dev costs. Says Sony’s Atindriya Bose:
The future of the Indian game development market will depend on the quality of the game developers who are starting at a zero base.
The Indian subsidiary also has a PS2 game software manufacturing facility that it makes available to other publishers looking to release games on the Indian subcontinent at local price points, and Sony even earns royalities on these games as well.
Sony will make India its gaming development hub [DNA via MAXCONSOLE][Pic]
2K Boston, with help from 2K Australia, made BioShock. And what a great game it was. But they’re not making BioShock 2. Somebody else is. Why somebody else and not 2K Boston? Ken Levine (pictured, emerging from the ruins of Rapture clutching the last remaining…Coke Zero!) explains:
I think for us, we come out of our BioShock coma – from shipping that game, and how hard that was – and then making a determination. What’s next for us, and how aggressive are we going to be?
Hudson’s Adidas ad sports title DECA SPORTS. Since putting the game on sale earlier this year, Hudson has shipped 700,000 copies to Japan, North America and Europe, selling 500,000 of them worldwide. That’s a pretty good ship-to-sales ratio right there, folks!
And the clock strikes rumour o’ clock. VG247 say that, according to “highly placed sources”, they’ve learned why Phil Harrison left Sony. And it wasn’t for an office door that read “Directeur Général Délégué”. They say it was because development of the PS4 was about to kick off, and Phil just couldn’t bring himself to go through the whole thing again.
He could see he was about to get involved in another PlayStation cycle, and obviously wanted something new. The same thing was happening again and he’d been through it enough times to want to move on.
May be true, may not be true, either way, it’s a possibility. We’re just surprised Sony took so long to get started on the PS4, seeing as companies normally start on their next console as soon as they’re finished the last one.
Rumour: Looming PS4 cycle was real reason for Harrison’s departure from Sony [VG247][Pic]
During E3, Microsoft announced that Final Fantasy XIII was coming to the Xbox 360 — but only for North America and Europe. However, the Xbox 360 was not announced for Japan. Add another country to the list!
At a recent Microsoft game exhibition in Taipei, Microsoft Taiwan’s Entertainment and Devices Division head Grace Chou announced that Final Fantasy XIII for the Xbox 360 would go on sale in Taiwan, but haven’t yet decided which localised version will be launched for the Asian territories.
We imagine that means it should be possible for Japanese Xbox 360 owners to import the Asia version and play it on their consoles — that is, unless the Asia FFXIII is region coded so that’s impossible.
Click through below for pics of the Taipei Xbox 360 event festivities, including ladies in sailor uniforms and a Dark Knight Xbox 360. Xbox 360 夏日同學會本週隆重登場 眾多強打新作首度在台公開現身 [GNN Gamer via XNEWS]
There are two fanbases I fear on these internets above all others. One are hardcore Fallout fans, who I picture to be something like Master Blaster from Mad Max. Sans the “Master”. The other are hardcore Diablo fans, because to be honest, I can’t see how you can be so into mouse clicking, and find their blind fanaticism both starkly intimidating and downright hilarious. This story, on MTV’s Multiplayer, manages to capture both the fanatacism and the hilarity. It’s an interview with Blizzard’s Jay Wilson, art director on Diablo III. Where Wilson takes a bunch of fan “suggestions” on Diablo III’s art direction – in the form of photoshopped screenshots – and tears them to pieces. Fun reading.
‘Diablo III’ Designer Turns Tables, Judges Fans’ Screenshots [MTV]
Even with a skeleton dev team, Auran continued to work on its MMO Fury in an attempt to make it profitable, and more importantly, fun. Yet, despite a restructure and the launch of Fury League, Auran has finally closed the doors on the game, according to a post on the official forums by CEO Tony Hilliam.
The post states that Auran “reached [its]time limit” to keep Fury up and running. Out of options, the company has been forced to take the very sudden action of shutting down the game’s servers and website within the next 48 hours. As such, I’ve included the contents of the post after the jump.
Not really a shock, or even a blip on the radar, but it signals the end of an unhappy page in the history of Australian game developers.
Fury Closing Down [Fury forums, thanks Alistair]
As pointed out by Wired, over the past week or so, a number of publishers made announcements regarding today’s Virtual Console lineup. Capcom said we’d get Mega Man 1, SNK said we’d get Samurai Shodown II and Hudson said we’d be getting Ys Book I & II. Instead, we got the shitty Mega Drive version of Sonic and Splatterhouse. Not the worst update, sure, but nowhere near as awesome as the one we were promised. So what gives? Nintendo say: A number of variables can affect a game’s release date. Therefore, the Wii-kly Update is the only authority for confirmed release dates of Virtual Console games.
Thanks for the surprise! Here’s a hint: when the publishers themselves announce a release date, and you go and yank it, it’s not a surprise. It’s a disappointment.
Nintendo releases statement concerning Virtual Console release dates [Go Nintendo]
August 1-3 saw GO3 land at the Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre. According to the official (and rather flashy) website, GO3 is all about the “latest in technology, communication, electronic games, in-car technology, communication, education & training [and]home audio”. Sadly, Perth isn’t the most accessible place in the world and, as such, the event remains a mystery to me.
Not to worry, as reader Theodore suggests this is probably a good thing. In fact, he was kind enough to offer his reporting services to document the event, even though it turned out to be rather unexciting. If you’d like to have a read and view some photos, just hit the jump.
As an aside, if you’re in a position to attend an event or see something super-special or gaming related and would like to write about it, let me know!
