Today is a great day for nostalgia freaks - with the next-gen Splatterhouse announcement and now the news that Douglas TenNapel, creator of the Earthworm Jim character, has entered a partnership with Interplay to resurrect the forgotten classic. TenNapel will play creative consultant for the development Earthworm Jim 4, an animated series and a feature film based on the character.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has revealed their plans for the Guitar Hero franchise to Conde Nast’s Portfolio magazine. In short, they’re making it more like Rock Band. Kotick told Portfolio:
It’s not just about guitars […] We’ll include a lot of other instruments, vocals.
Epic Games president Mike Capps cares not for the massive audience of Wii owners salivating for a decent game not based on Nintendo IP, he cares only about technology. “We go forward, not back. It makes more sense for us to invest in the next-generation tech,” he said in a recent IGN interview.
At a recent shareholder meeting, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick (pictured) said he has seen some of the reviews for Grand Theft Auto IV ahead of their publication:
We’ve already received numerous [GTA IV] reviews, and to a one, they are perfect scores. My mom couldn’t write better reviews…
This is fairly unsurprising news, but the next ten days is set to go by awful slowly for a few million gamers around the world - especially once the embargos lift and we have to start reading the in-depth, glowing reports.
via GamePolitics.com
UBS analyst Ben Schachter has some tips for those of you planning on benchmarking Grand Theft Auto IV’s sales against previous iterations - namely, don’t.
Back when Vice City and San Andreas were flying off shelves, the PS2 and Xbox were the dominant platforms - and there’s nowhere near as many PS3s and Xbox 360s out there. Schachter rightfully proposes that GTA IV’s attach rate (number of units sold divided by the number of Xbox 360/PS3 consoles in homes) is the more accurate metric for success.
“Should Metacritic scores come in above 95, attach rates could rise to 30%+, implying potential U.S. sales of 7-8mm units (scores for the past three GTA titles were 95, 95, and 97). Any attach rate above 26% would beat expectations in our view,” he added.
via GameDaily.biz
While Rockstar Games are remaining tight-lipped regarding what was cut from the Australian and New Zealand versions of Grand Theft Auto IV, one enterprising gamer decided to call Take-Two’s (expensive) customer service line:
Okay guys, I have some news for you regarding what was edited from the AU release. I just gave Take2 a call (a friggin expensive 1902 number!) and this is exactly what I was told:
“Well in regards to what Rockstar have removed for the Australian release, as far as we’re aware there was only one sexually violent cut-scene which Rockstar felt would cause the game to be Refused Classification. Unfortunately we’re not able to go into specifics until after the game has been released but I can tell you that the scene involves a weapon being inserted into an enemies private area during a mission where Niko is taking revenge after one of his close friends was forced into sexual intercourse during his stay in prison.”
Seriously I thought he was joking ….I was like LOL you’re joking right? He says “No. This is what Rockstar felt needed to be removed from the game for it’s Australian release. We were recently given permission to release this information because as we understand, Rockstar originally made a press release stating that the game would be released uncut world wide. We felt it would be misleading not to release the information”.
While many would argue the absence of a particularly violent cutscene is inconsequential to the GTA IV experience, the idea of paying nearly double the price (AU$120 converts to US$112) for a censored version of a game is proving a hard one to swallow for many Australians.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Australians are cancelling their pre-orders of Grand Theft Auto IV in a backlash against Rockstar Games and the government, after finding out their AUD$120 (US$112) purchase will leave them with a censored version of the game.
Many Australian gamers have cancelled their [GTA IV] orders.
Already angered by the price of the blockbuster in Australia - $120 compared to $US60 ($64) in North America - gamers have reacted with outrage to news… that developer Rockstar has edited the game for Australia in order to obtain an MA15+ rating.
Many gamers said they cancelled their orders with Australian shops and will import a cheaper, uncut version, flouting the law.
Australians are faced with a tough decision - either pay through the nose for a censored version of the game to play on launch day, or wait a few days for an International courier to arrive with their unedited copy of the game and hope that Rockstar Games and/or South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson (the main roadblock to an R 18+ rating for games) read us loud and clear.
Industry analysts and sources close to Take-Two Interactive have told Variety they expect Grand Theft Auto IV to gross over $400 million in its first week on sale.
Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes has also said he expects GTA IV to provide two times the volume of sales of Halo 3, while GameStop VP of merchandise Bob McKenzie says the game will fall short of the mark set by Bungie and Microsoft.
[H] Enthusiast posted an article on Nvidia’s new GeForce 9600 GT graphics card. The card is up to par with (if not a little better than) Nvidia’s 8800 GT and ATI’s latest offerings, but it’s main selling point, in my opinion, is it’s sub-$200 price. Starting at $169 MSRP, it will help open up the high-end gaming market to those not willing to dole out $500 for a top-of-the-line video card.
So now, we have the data to critically examine the question: Is PC gaming in crisis? On the surface, recent NPD figures would indicate an affirmative, with retail sales dropping nearly US$60 million from US$970 million in 2006 to US$910.7 million in 2007. This number fails to take into account the revenue earned from MMO subscriptions and from digital distributors such as the booming Steam network. Factor those into your figures, and you’ll see that PC gaming is alive and kicking without a doubt.
But if raw retail figures and rankings give you a real buzz, hit the jump for the top 10 selling PC games of ‘07.
