Analyst Dough Creutz of Cowen Group believes GTA: Chinatown Wars is as much a test for Take-Two as it is for Nintendo. Gamasutra reports on Creutz’s bullish investor note, where he expresses that the title will reveal Take-Two’s “ability to make inroads” on Nintendo’s platforms.

On the flip side, he expresses that Nintendo wants Chinatown Wars to succeed because it appeals to core gamers, whom Creutz apparently thinks Nintendo still gives a Yoshi’s turd about.

Analyst: Chinatown Wars a test for both Take-Two, Nintendo originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pirates of the Burning Sea developer Flying Lab has hoisted the sails on a casual games division. GameDaily reports that Flying Lab Casual is working on making leisure MMO games, with the first project being a “family friendly” title in partnership with Upper Deck trading card company. An official announcement of the title should be made in the next couple weeks.

Though Burning Sea has suffered a lack of subscribers post launch, at least it hasn’t walked the plank, unlike some other MMOs released around the same time. Perhaps the company will have better success in the burgeoning North American casual MMO market.

Casual MMOs are next frontier for Pirates of Burning Sea dev originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re as pumped as I’m for Bayonetta, or one of the many excited for MadWorld, then it’s your lucky bloody day, as developer Platinum Games has opened up a Web site for all fork-tongued Western devils. Huzzah!

There’s a blog, trailers, a forum, all that good stuff, so it’s worth checking out if you’re a Platinum fan. Right now there’s a slight technical hitch which seems to now grant some users to pass the age gates, but it’s being worked on.

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I’ve been waiting weeks for Sony to give me an excuse to use “Shillzone,” and I knew the publisher wouldn’t let me down. Killzone 2 is preparing for a full-on hype offensive, as a ludicrous

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It seems like I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on House of the Dead in various arcades and movie theatres. The ideal thing about the Wii version of the game isn’t the retro approach or emphasis on shooting: It’s that you’ll never have to put a quarter (or token) in your console’s slot.

Like Nick, I’m cautiously optimistic about this game. It seems like the Light Gun-based game is as much of a remnant of the past as the American arcade. However, Sega are really focused on promising that this game is much more than what it seems.

This day, Sega released a few screens and one piece of artwork for the game’s “Carny” environment. The screens show off huge, bright reticules and evil (terrifying) clowns. But I would anticipate that out of a Light Gun horror game featuring the massive top.

What do you guys think of these?

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Prince of Persia is one of those titles that seemed to divide gamers in 2008 — either you loved it, or you simply hated it. For me, it was one of the best gaming experiences of last year. So if you hear shouting, that’s me yelling in excitement about the game’s upcoming downloadable content.

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Chicken or the egg? Economic crisis or casual gaming at the office? ComScore, a digital marketing analyst firm, reports that on the internet gaming portals supplied 86 million visitors in the US last year with a gentle gaming fix, a 27% increase from the previous year.

Yahoo Games was the most trafficked site for office diversion, with a 20% increase in souls, totaling 19.5 million last year. EA On the internet and Disney Games were the runners-up with 15.4 million and 13.4 million visitors, respectively. All sites saw healthy traffic and ad increases from the prior year. ComScore believes consumers have turned to these outlets to take their minds off the economy and seek free gaming alternatives. Yeah, the first hit might be free, but eventually you’ll pay for the harder casual stuff … and PopCap will be waiting.

On the web casual game portals grow‭ ‬27% originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While songs from Nickelodeon’s upcoming Television movie Spectacular! weren’t on your list of 4400 tracks you’d like to see in Rock Band in 2009, it doesn’t matter. They’re coming anyway.

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Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360

According to the NPD, a good exclusive does not necessarily equal good sales. The group has collected data for 2008’s exclusives on each platform and, well, there have been some under-performers. On the Xbox 360 side, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was a disappointment, selling only 140,000 units. The other exclusive on Microsoft’s console, Fable 2 (Joystiq’s GOTY), was more of your traditional success story with a respectable 1.2 million copies sold.

And what about the industry-leading PS3? We already know MGS4 sold extremely well, but the same can’t be said (yet) for LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2, both of which seemed to perform lower than expectations; LBP sold 611,000 copies in North America while R2 unloaded 600,000 units.

As for Nintendo, well … it won. It always does. Last we heard, Nintendo stopped making games and was in the process of building a Kirby-shaped Death Star to orbit the planet.

NPD: Console exclusives performed with blended results in ‘08 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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