Friday, November 7, 2008
News
Phil Harrison On The Ghostbusters Game
11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | As we previously posted, Atari have picked up the rights to the Ghostbusters game, left in limbo ever since the Activision/Vivendi merger killed off the game’s original publisher, Sierra. The company plans to release Ghostbusters “early next summer”, to coincide with the first movie’s 25th anniversary. More »
Wii Fit In My Bullet Train Schedule? Oh Yes
10:40PM Brian Ashcraft | If there was any doubt how aggressive the Nintendo advertising machine is in Japan, this should erase it. When I hopped on a bullet train a week or so back, I was surprised to see that the train schedule’s front and back covers had been turned into a Wii Fit ad. Usually there are pictures of bullet trains on the front and the back, and I cannot remember ever seeing the space used for advertising. But here ya go! For the curious, hit the jump and see the inside. More »
News
Finally, Some Proper European Hardware Sales Data
10:20PM Luke Plunkett | In both the US and Japan, we’re able to compare how well each console and handheld is performing by looking at hard numbers. It’s handy, it’s useful. But in Europe? The companies responsible for tracking sales – GfK and ChartTrack being the two biggest – keep the data to themselves. They’re not for public consumption, and are only ever available for paying customers; namely, platform holders, publishers and marketing types. But! It looks like we’ve found a temporary loophole. Nintendo obviously pay the various sales trackers money for the data. They then presented the data at a financial results briefing in Japan last week. Then that data found its way onto the internet. And now we can see it. Above, you can see the weekly sales performance of each of the three home consoles across Europe in 2008. The Wii dominates, as expected. And the 360 languishes in last, as expected, although the recent price cuts seem to be having some effect on sales. Nintendo Results Briefing [via Captain Smoker & UK:R] More »
GuitarFreaks and DrumMania Get EXCITING PUNCTUATION!!!!
10:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Starting today, Konami is holding location tests for music games GuitarFreaksV6 BLAZING!!!! and DrumManiaV6 BLAZING!!!! in Kawasaki and Kyoto. As reader Riyu points out, “Don’t know song counts but expected to be over 570+ alpha in all. As usual, Drummania and Guitar Freaks can session and be played together. It is Guitar Freak’s 17th Installment and Drummania’s 16th installment. If you live in either location, details below about the location test. Should be BLAZING!!!! More »
Someone Else Says Dead Rising 2 In Development At Blue Castle
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | Earlier this year, all the way back in February, we heard that Dead Rising 2 was in development at Vancouver-based Blue Castle. Capcom wouldn’t come out and confirm it, but hey, we heard what we heard. Now? Someone else is saying the same thing. Fresh off a trip to Vancouver, Eurogamer say that a source “familiar with the project” let them know that, yes, Blue Castle are hard at work on the sequel to the 360’s premier zombie-infested mall simulator. Nothing else to report that builds on what was reported in February, but hey, maybe second time around Capcom will feel compelled to come out and make an official announcement. More »
Shameful DSi Camera Explored Further
9:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Here’s a better, longer, and deeper look at the fancy software packed in the DSi with once again embarrassing results. Once users take a photo, they can then alter it in the DSi Camera editor. Meaning? Meaning they can do stuff with it Nintendo probably did not intend for them to. Or maybe Nintendo did, I dunno. What do I look like, Nintendo’s boss? More »
News
Sony Australia Are Just Giving PS3 Games Away
8:30PM Luke Plunkett | Last month, we heard about a deal whereby Sony Australia would give away a free copy of LittleBigPlanet with every PS3 sold. It wasn’t a bundle or anything, you’d pay what you normally pay for a PS3, and just get LittleBigPlanet for free. Well, that deal’s now been expanded, with SCE Australia announcing that customers will, when buying a new PlayStation 3 console, be able to choose one of four games: LittleBigPlanet, SingStar Abba, MotorStorm 2 or Resistance 2. That should have just about everyone covered…if you can’t find something on that list you like, you should possibly reconsider why it is exactly you’re buying a PS3. More »
Why The Hell Dennis Hopper Did That Mario Movie
8:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Calling the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie “utter tripe crap” is being polite. It’s much worse than that. Actor Bob Hoskins, who played Mario, has called the movie “the worst” thing he did. Academy Award winner Dennis Hopper, no stranger to utter tripe crap himself, wasn’t too pleased with the flick and explained why he did the project in an interview on late night show Conan O’Brien: More »
WCG 2008 Day 1: Australia’s Counter-Strike Nail Biter
7:38PM Seamus Byrne | Well the Australian Counter-Strike 1.6 team could not have gotten away to a better start. Facing their major competition in Group B, the UK, in the very first match of the tournament, Immunity took out the very tight match with one round to spare, playing out for a 17-13 win. This was a massive moment for the Australians, and a lot of spectators started to stop by to watch them play having seen that result. The boys had made a mark on the international scene.
Things got even better from there, with comfortable wins against Greece (21-9) and Portugal (20-10) putting them in an excellent position to advance to the next round.
Norway were the second big threat in the group, and a win here would see Immunity a sure thing to top Group B, which would be a major shock to most tournament onlookers. After losing the toss and starting on the weaker side of the map, Immunity had a cracking start, but failed to capitalise and struggled to get back in the game before dropping the match (11-19). From here, a devastating three-way tie for first loomed, which could see our boys miss out based on a points countback… More » 
