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In late November, we brought word that game voice actor Michael Rudder (Far Cry Instincts, Prince Of Persia: The Warrior Within, Splinter Cell) was among the casualties in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
That's Atindriya Bose, country manager of PlayStation India. He's here to tell us all about India, a growth region Sony has been supporting full force.
On November 7, Gears of War is truly getting a global release. The same day it hits North America and Europe, the game will also be appearing on Indian retail shelves. To celebrate its release, Microsoft India recently held a Gears 2 event in Mumbai.
The PlayStation 2 is far from dead, and the console is outselling the PS3. With Sony Europe's developer relations manager George Bain announcing that it's no longer necessary for developers to submit upcoming titles to Sony for content approval, don't expect the PS2 to die off anytime soon. The platform is now open, and this action will certain spur on a spate of low-cost titles. Bain cited territories like Russia and India that are now able to "create low-development cost titles and release them in their market". Dev kits are still a necessity, but there are no longer PS2 licensing fees. "This has never been done before," notes Bain. "This is something we're actively promoting."
After all that trouble Bethesda went through to make the game pretty enough for discerning Australian tastes, now Microsoft has decided to cancel the 360 version of the game in India due to 'cultural sensitivities'. This means no Fallout 3 for the country at all, as the PS3 and PC versions were never scheduled for release there. Gamingindians.com ran the official statement from Microsoft.
Microsoft constantly endeavours to bring the best games to Indian consumers in sync with their international release. However, in light of cultural sensitivities in India, we have made the business decision to not bring Fallout 3 into the country.
Sony Compunter Entertainment is looking to India. Makes sense as the country has established itself in the animation industry, so gaming seems like a logical next stop. Says SCEE country manager for India Atindriya Bose:
The competence and the state of readiness of the Indian developers makes it imperative that India soon will emerge as a key development hub for many international games companies.
Sony has already signed 13 developers, including Indian devs, up to produce local and international content for the PlayStation platform.
SCEE: 'India will emerge as key development hub for international companies' [develop]
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]
Here's some good news, bad news, and then good news again! The first good news is that Namco Bandai's Xbox 360 exclusive Tales of Vesperia now has a demo up on Xbox Live. The bad news? Currently the demo is only available in India and Asia...but do not fret! There is no fretting! Users in other regions who just so happen to have a Japanese Silver account set up are more than welcome to download the demo and fool around with the title. The icing on this Oreo good-bad-good cake? The demo only weighs in at 278 MB, and it runs in good old English, so no battling with the squigglies. Sweet!
Demo: Tales of Vesperia [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]
Charge your MS points to this and watch time and space tear themselves apart. As part of their ongoing attempts to convince Indians to part with their cash and embrace the 360, Microsoft have teamed up with local bank ICICI to offer the Xbox 360 Visa card. Besides giving fanboys the chance to show their fanboy colours to...shop assistants and waiters, it actually seems a pretty sweet deal, since signing up for the card entitles you to 360-related discounts, like discounts on games and peripherals, including 10% off controllers and 15% off...Kameo.
Xbox 360 Credit Card [Redington, via Siliconera]
I love promotional music videos for games, since they're usually so wonderfully terrible they're fantastic. It's even better when there's a weird story attached: GameSetWatch turned up a NeoGAF post regarding the fate of Irrational's cancelled release, The Lost. The game has resurfaced (with reworked graphics, but with core mechanics and story relatively intact) as an Indian release for PCs under the title of Agni: Queen Of Darkness. As GSW neatly sums up, "... evidently this title went south, Irrational got bought by 2K and turned their attention to BioShock, and FXLabs managed to rejigger it for a Bollywood PC release." But that's not all! It even got its own music video featuring Bollywood star Malaika Arora. I'm entranced.
Irrational's 'The Lost' Turns Up... In Bollywood?! [GameSetWatch]
