Monday, November 3, 2008
Dope Wars Comes To iPhone
11:20PM Luke Plunkett | Had to happen. A version of the venerable PC classic Dope Wars has come to the iPhone. Except this “homage” has the even less acceptable moniker of Drug Lords, and takes advantage of the phone’s location-tracking to keep your drug prices fresh no matter where your shivering, aimless shambling takes you. Don’t expect this in the App Store any time soon. More »
Election 2008: Mario Casts His Vote
11:00PM Luke Plunkett | Lots of people call Mario “Italian”, but they’re either falling back on creaky old racial stereotypes or just plain guessing. Mario may be of Italian descent, but he and his brother are from Brooklyn. They’re American. And as such are as eligible to vote as any of you other non-incarcerated American adults. With Election 2008 now upon us (well, you), who is Mario Mario throwing his support behind? Here’s a hint: it’s not John McCain. More »
Why The Beatles Are With MTV, And Not Activision
10:00PM Luke Plunkett | Activision boss Bobby “What, Me Worry?” Kotick has a well-established routine for dealing with record labels. When it comes to Guitar Hero, they take their small cut of the profits, they get their songs on the game, they go quietly into the night. Helps Activision make a ton of money from the games, but it also looks like it cost them a deal to get the Beatles on Guitar Hero. Speaking with Reuters about said deal, Sony/ATV CEO Martin Bandier has said Activision’s hard-ball stance with record labels was the driving force behind MTV scoring The Beatles catalogue: It was presented as if they were doing the music business a favour. It’s true you can choose other types of music, and somewhere along the line someone’s going to do it for free for the exposure … When it comes to the Beatles, the leverage changes. We’re very happy with the terms of our arrangement with MTV. More »
Microsoft Top Brass Not Exactly Happy With XBL Downtime
9:00PM Luke Plunkett | Cast your minds back a little under a year ago, and you may recall Microsoft having a little trouble with Xbox Live. Namely, it wasn’t working. Which was strange, and strange for two reasons. Firstly, it’s normally always working. And secondly, it didn’t just stop working, it stopped working for weeks. Think it was down for weeks because Microsoft just didn’t care? Well, we can tell you, somebody cared. Two people, in fact. One of them was Robbie Bach. And the other? Steve Ballmer. More »
Wild Tangent Studios Boss Steps Down, Internal Development Cut Loose
8:00PM Luke Plunkett | You know WildTangent? The casual gaming specialists, fronted by former DirectX creator Alex St. John and long-time believer in the “casual games will soon rule the universe” train of thought, just announced that they are killing off their internal development studio, which had only managed to churn out three games in two years. The company’s online casual gaming portal will remain, along with it’s 1000 or so games, but it’ll be staying without boss Alex St. John, who is stepping down from his post. The move was made to cut costs, with the benefits of developing their own games not seen as being as economically viable as simply hosting somebody else’s. WildTangent Suffers Studio Closure [Edge] More »
Game Boy Lives On As Home For Amazing Boxing Cartoon
7:00PM Luke Plunkett | The Game Boy’s dead. Done. Nintendo are all about the DS now. But that doesn’t mean the Game Boy is no longer of use! Behold, Boxing Tonight. Created by Camilo and SidAbitBall, the whole thing was done on a Game Boy; the animation was synchronised with a Game Boy in real-time, and the soundtrack done on a Game Boy as well. Brilliant. More »
The PlayStation 3 Vending Machine
6:00PM Luke Plunkett | Universal Pictures and Sony have teamed up to announce the “PoP”, a joint-venture operation that will see the release of Universal and Sony-branded…vending machines. That dispense Blu-Rays, and DVDs, and CDs, and most relevant to us, PS3 games. Pick your title, insert your cash money/credit card and the PoP will burn the game onto a disc. Easy as that. The machines will also offer stuff like trailer downloads, which can either be burned to a disc or downloaded directly to your own USB stick or SD card. Bear in mind, this announcement is British in origin. No idea on what form these machines will/may start appearing in for other regions. More »
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Universal Buys Rights To EA’s Dante’s Inferno
5:00PM Luke Plunkett | What a world we live in. Universal Pictures have bought the rights to make a movie based on EA’s Dante’s Inferno. And they’ve bought them for a “seven-figure sum”. Bear in mind, this is a game that hasn’t even been announced yet. The project will be overseen by EA movies-and-comic books guy President David O’Brien, as well as Jonathan Knight (from the gaming side of things), and both game and movie will involve – wait for it – “a journey through the depths of hell” More »
Reminder: 2 Saints Row Packs Up For Grabs For (Wannabe) Gangtas
12:15PM Kym Weathersten | Yo yo. Don’t forget, for your chance to win one of two Saints Row packs, including a copy of the game and real spesh limited edition singlet (possibly worn by the Shay), plus a blingin’ golf bullet 1GB USB, send a photo of your best made for Kotaku gansta pose to competitions@kotaku.com.au. Entries close November 14, dawg… geez, dis gansta shitz hardcore.
[Saints Row 2 comp on Kotaku]
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