It’s a common theory that mature games just don’t work on a Nintendo platform. Both the DS and the Wii have had some rather huge M-rated titles join their libraries, yet fail to rack up the immediate success that was expected. Nevertheless, Sega is still committed to giving mature Wii gamers some blood n’ guts, believing that slow-burn sales are still good for business.

“Home of the Dead: Overkill was a profitable title for us,” says European development MD Gary Dunn. “Whilst it had a rather sharp tail at full price, they do bubble away at a lower price point for a long time. You get your money back and a bit on full price, but over the years, if we do the final product return on investment, profits come from the lower price point.

“You have to push boundaries and explore. I think whilst MadWorld commercially didn’t sell what we were anticipating I wouldn’t say it’s game over for mature Wii titles from Sega. We’re taking a look at the resources we have now. We’ve got money to invest in development, we’re just considering where to invest it next.”

Hats off to Sega for delivering something more “adult” on the Wii. The firm’s been putting out some solid stuff recently, going some way towards making up for a few years of rubbish. Here’s hoping the publisher can continue to provide the Wii with something a tiny less twee than the system’s main library.

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

[INTERIOR] [SPACE STATION SORBET VII]

ENSIGN CAMEO: Sir! I’m picking up several signatures on my gamma pulse spectrum radar!
GENERAL CONSENSUS: Is it an attack? Did the Radical Space Sect find us?
ENSIGN CAMEO: No, sir, these objects are too small … too listless and apathetic to be ships! It’s like they have no particular trajectory … they’re totally unpredictable.
GENERAL CONSENSUS: Dr. Diana Fhire! What do you make of this?
DR. FHIRE: Hmm, I’ve never seen anything like this, possibly because I’m meant to be this film’s gratuitous eye candy and thus possess highly suspect academic qualifications like Denise Richards did in that one Bond motion picture. Anyway, my tachyon scanner indicates that we’re not dealing with biological matter. In fact, the substance seems … no, that can’t be!
GENERAL CONSENSUS: What? What are we dealing with here?
DR. FHIRE: Rocks. Massive rocks. In space.
GENERAL CONSENSUS: My god. Space rocks … but how?
DR. FHIRE: It’s only a theory, but I believe coming into contact with these … these … “asteroids” could kill us severely.
GENERAL CONSENSUS: How … how many of them pose a threat?

[CLOSE UP ON DR. FHIRE]

DR. FHIRE: All of them, general.

[CLOSER UP ON DR. FHIRE]

DR. FHIRE. All. Of. Them.

[INTERIOR] [ALARMS SOUND]

GENERAL CONSENSUS: Ensign! Get me gruff-but-likable washout pilot Jack Plot. He’s the only one that can fly the experimental Triangulon Mark V –
DR. FHIRE: The Triangulon?! Are you crazy? That thing’s still a prototype! It’s not tested for –
GENERAL CONSENSUS: We don’t have a choice, Diana. I’m not getting my ass kicked by these roids!

Universal wins ‘bidding war’ for Asteroids motion picture rights originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read

Popularity: unranked [?]

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

Nintendo has made a deal with UK Television station Five to fully fund one of its new shows, MCV reports. The Advertiser-Funded Programming deal means that Nintendo will pay for eight episodes of the new Britain’s Ideal Brain show, which subjects contestants to five tasks, each designed to test a different brain function: “memory, co-ordination, numeracy, recognition and risk.”

Obviously, we suspect Nintendo will use this opportunity as a promotional platform for the Brain Training series. If it were, state, Capcom looking for Britain’s ideal brain, there would be cause for concern. MCV notes that in-show product placement is illegal, meaning that Nintendo will have to relegate the DS mentions to ads.

Nintendo sponsors British game show originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

In what could be a ballsy move, ZEN Studios has announced that it will be releasing a playable demo for Punisher: No Mercy on PlayStation Network tomorrow.

Ballsy because a few people had made up their minds that at $9.99, the gory multiplayer shooter seemed like a sure bet. While we’d like to hope the game holds up, I suppose we’ll find out tomorrow – the demo will feature two of the game’s eight levels from the full game, which also hits PSN tomorrow.

ZEN Studios has also revealed the game’s trophies, which can be found somewhere on Marvel.com. How can a game that tasks you to “Blow 100 enemies into a million tiny pieces with a grenade launcher,” be all that bad?

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

Really, you have no excuse for not taking part in the Uncharted 2 demo if you owned a PS3 and really wanted to. It was really just a demo disguised as a beta (like most “betas” on consoles) and codes were being thrown around so casually, that anybody who wanted them should have been able to get five.

Nonetheless, if you dig Uncharted and somehow missed the beta, fear no. Naughty Dog has reiterated that a widespread multiplayer demo will be coming. We’d already heard that one was coming, but it’s nice to see the dev officially confirming it.

“Yes, we’re going to have another multiplayer demo before the game hits shelves,” says Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells on the PSBlog. “The exact timing isn’t finalized yet, but it should be available to an even wider group this time, so if you missed the last one I don’t think you’ll have any problem getting in this one.”

Available to an even wider group? How do you get much wider than “everyone in the whole world?”

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

Pachter’s large games industry report continues to be full of fun predictions. In our latest installment of “Pachter states a load of stuff that people inevitably hate him for,” the prominent Wedbush Morgan analyst continues to give Sony a good outlook, stating that PlayStation games will account for 31% of the market.

The professional guesser states that the PS2 brand will become far less relevant this year, but that the PS3 will rise in prominence and pick up its slack, leading to a very strong PlayStation brand overall and allowing “software sales for Sony consoles to account for 31% of all game software sold worldwide.”

He notes that, as PS2 game sales peter out, PS3 game sales have more than doubled in the past year. Also, while Pachter believes that Sony will fail to “secure significant third celebration exclusivity,” its focus on first celebration blockbusters will see PS3 titles become the top sellers in future.

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

Wedbush Morgan’s report on the videogame industry seems to be the gift that keeps on giving. Yesterday, we spoke about how Pachter predicted that Sony would surpass the Xbox 360 in six years’ time, and today we’ve another nugget of gold from the analyst’s big document — talking about how a hi-def Wii could seriously hurt the PS3’s comeback chances.

“In our view, if Nintendo can offer such a device by year-end 2010, it will be in a position to seriously damage Sony’s chances of a comeback this cycle,” claims the report. “We would anticipate publishers to support such a move, given that the cost of porting an Xbox 360 game to the new Wii Plus HD format would likely be lower than the cost of building a ground up Wii game (we estimate under $5 million).

“Should Nintendo be able to convince publishers like EA and Take-Two that the Wii Plus should be supported by the entire EA Sports catalog and by the next installment of Grand Theft Auto, it should be in a position to successfully convince consumers that the Wii Plus is the last console they’ll ever need to purchase.”

I’m sure many more stories will come out of this report, which is currently being scoured by bloggers all over the Internet for more crazy quotes from the industry’s greatest guessworker. What do you make of this one, though? Would Wii HD take the wind out of Sony’s sails, and would it mean we’d never need another console?

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

It’s already been confirmed twice over that Metroid Prime Trilogy comes in a sexy box and is a hell of a deal — $49.99 for three Metroid Prime games on one disc for the Wii. That’s real speak.

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

The PlayStation 3 might will be chugging away in third place, but that hasn’t stopped industry analyst Michael Pachter from declaring that Sony’s black box o’ Blu-ray will overtake Microsoft’s beige box o’ breaking-all-the-time.

“We think that the PS3 will capture significant

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This

Famitsu scans have revealed the God Eater project whose title was trademarked by Namco Bandai a couple of months ago. It’s a multiplayer action game for PSP that appears aimed at the Monster Hunter market (which, let’s be honest, each Japanese developer probably should be trying to do on the PSP). God Eater trades out the fantasy setting of Monster Hunter for a more futuristic, industrial venue. It features a mix of mythical creatures and large, robotic monsters.

According to Siliconera, God Eater will be out this fall in Japan. The existence of that US trademark suggests that the company will be releasing it here as well.

Hunt monsters in Namco Bandai’s ‘God Eater’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read

Share This

Popularity: 1% [?]

Share This