Saturday, September 20, 2008
News
Nintendo Make ‘Top 100 Brands’ List
3:30PM Luke Plunkett | Every year, market researchers Interbrand publish a little chart. Amongst marketing types, it’s very important. They compile what they believe are the top 100 “hottest” brands in the world, and rank them in order of, well, “hotness”. Any and all brand names are eligible, so the top of the list is dominated by names like Coke, IBM, Microsoft McDonalds. But cast your eyes down the list to #40 and you’ll see little old Nintendo. No doubt thanks to the continued success of the Wii and DS, they moved up four places from the 2007 list, one spot behind Kellogs and one spot ahead of…Swiss financial services firm UBS. They’re the only games-specific “brand” to make the list; both Sony (#25) and Microsoft (#3) are present, but they’re of course there primarily for other stuff. best global brands [Interbrand] More »
What Genre Are You Sick Of?
3:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Ahoy! It’s Friday, time to pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink and chat. That’s right, time for Tell Us Dammit — rather, TELL US DAMMIT. Here’s how it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn’t some marketing survey or whatever. It’s an emotional investment in you. Yes, we’re interested in knowing you, Kotaku reader person. You probably know fucktons about us — more than you even want to, we’re sure. But, hey, we’d like to know about you. That way you won’t be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your arse. Or not, because really we’re incapable of human emotion. Who knows! Question: What genre are you sick of? More »Brothers In Arms Trailer Not For The Squeamish
2:30PM Luke Plunkett | And here I was thinking Brothers In Arms was all about the camaraderie, the historical accuracy. All they focus on here is exploding Germans and excessive gore. Sure, maybe that’s realistic, too, in its own way, but all the slo-mo and disintegrating heads and gratuitous dismemberment comes off looking more Soldier Of Fortune than Band of Brothers. More »
News
Bionic Commando Rearmed Success ‘Hasn’t Sunk In’ For Capcom Japan
1:40PM Luke Plunkett | Interesting comment from Bionic Commando (the big, new one) producer Ben Judd. Speaking with Videogamer about the success of Bionic Commando Rearmed, he says: It’s a game that’s been done by a Japanese publisher so even though it’s doing extremely well, that information hasn’t really sunk in to their side. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Mega Man 9. That right there could set our internal strategy. If the Mega Man 9 stuff is successful we might see more retro games like that. But if ultimately Rearmed is more successful, they could come back and say ‘people really want these high def, high quality remixes, they don’t want just the old stuff’. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. Sure we can find room in our hearts – and our wallets – for both styles of re-release, Capcom. Bionic Commando Interview [Videogamer] [Image] More »
Monster Hunter Wii Screens
1:20PM Luke Plunkett | And so the natural progression begins anew. We see blurry shots of a Japanese game from scans of a Japanese mag, then a few days later, they get around to releasing those same screenshots for the rest of us. Looking pretty sharp there, Capcom. Thanks for taking the time to actually push the limits of the hardware. Plenty more at the link below. 巨大な海竜が登場！ 『モンスターハンター3（トライ）』では狩りが大幅に進化 [Dengeki] More »New Rock Revolution Scars on Broadway Trailer
12:40PM Adam Barenblat | Don’t get me wrong, Rockband and Guitar hero (with the right drunk friends) are both a blast, but I’m really on the fence about Konami’s Rock Revolution. It’s not that the game looks bad – the drumset looks fun to play. It’s that there doesn’t seem to be anything really new about it and there isn’t a guitar controller for it. Regardless, we have a new trailer for the game featuring Scars on Broadway you guys are more than welcome to take a look at. The game will be hitting shelves on October 14th for Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS. More »
News
LA Noire: At Least A Year Off, Very Expensive, Coming To 360?
12:20PM Luke Plunkett | Been all quiet on the LA Noire front for a while now. So how’s everything going? Well according to the president of the Game Developers’ Association of Australia (LA Noire’s in development at Team Bondi studios in Sydney), Tom Crago, everything’s going just fine. He says the game has around “a year or so to go”, then adds that it “could be the biggest budget videogame in development anywhere in the world. It would certainly… in terms of console titles, be in the top ten… LA Noire is a massive massive project”. Never really had the game pegged as a BLOCKBUSTER before, but hey, if that’s how Rockstar want to spend their cash, it’s their cash! Finally, he also told attendees at Games Convention Asia that the game was coming to 360. Funny, since it’s always been a PS3 exclusive. Then again, Crago’s boss of the GDAA, not boss of Team Bondi, so we’ll peg this last bit a rumour for now. L.A. Noire: A Year Off and No Longer PS3 Exclusive? [IGN] More »
Cancelled Eight Days Had Awesome Animation, Makes Us Angry At EyePet
12:00PM Michael McWhertor | It doesn’t look like we’ll ever see Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s Eight Days. The project was apparently scrapped, with SCE Worldwide Studios bossman Shuhei Yoshida instead dedicating resources to projects like the recently announced EyePet. Fiscally, probably not a horrible idea, as Eight Days may have ultimately been a big-budget third-person shooter, something we’re not exactly lacking in these days. Still, this recently uploaded look at Eight Days‘ animation tests, via our good friends at NeoGAF make us a little misty-eyed. Poor thing never had a chance… and it was so nicely animated, too. Here’s to hoping this cover system tech can be put to use elsewhere. More »
SEGA Brings Harleys, Smoke, Lightning, Heavy Metal Thunder Back To Arcades
11:30AM Michael McWhertor | Look, you may not be excited about the announcement of Harley-Davidson: King of the Road, but there are some of us who hold SEGA’s previous arcade hog racer, Harley-Davidson & L.A. Riders in very high regard. And hey, it’s been ten years, damn it. Sure, we may never see it on these shores, unless some GameWorks locations pick it up, but how can you not be excited about straddling a life-life Harley controller and racing on a 62″ screen? Better yet, Harley-Davidson: King of the Road looks to feature a biker-friendly ’70s soundtrack, complete with Steppenwolf and Deep Purple. The whole thing was on display at the Tokyo Amusement show this week. We’re desperately hoping they ship them out to Japanese arcades in time for our Tokyo Game Show arrival. SEGA At the 46th Amusement Machine Show [Game Watch] More »
