Skate It release on November in the US and Europe
Filed in External News, October 31, 2008, 10:18 pm
Skate It (Wii, Nintendo DS) video game will be sold on November 19 in north America and Novermber 20 in Europe. The game provides fun and unique skateboarding experience for skate fans and gamers.
It takes place in San Vanelona, a city that’s been abandoned because of a series of crazy events that happened. Wander through the favorite spots like Hall of Meat, and experience traveling the world to become Thrasher Magazine’s Skater of the Year.
Gamers can skate by moving objects like ramps, rails and benches to fit what they want it to be. It is a multiplayer game with awards such as Best Trick and Best Line to aim for.
Skate it has recently been award the Best Wii Game Award during the Games Convention tradeshow in Germany. It has also been nominated for Best Sports game for the Gmae Critics Awards: Best of E3 2008.
Nintendo announces release dates of new games
Filed in External News, , 9:58 pm
Nintendo gives a hefty amount of release dates of game titles that cover all three major regions. It contains loads of dates for your memory to acquire unless you have a super memorizing skill. So take note of them and I warned you, it is a long list so check them out below:
November 2008
Nintendo DSi 11/01/08
Aruite Wakaru Seikatsu Rhythm DS 11/01/08
VALKYRIE PROFILE–Covenant of the Plume– SQUARE ENIX 11/01/08
AVALONCODE Marvelous Entertainment Inc. 11/01/08
Kirby Super Star Ultra 11/06/08
Shooting Star Rockman3 BlackAce/RedJoker CAPCOM 11/13/08
SIREN 2 SEGA CORPORATION 11/13/08
DS KYOTARO NISHIMURA SUSPENSE 2 TECMO, LTD 11/13/08
FamilySki World Ski & Snowboard NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. 11/13/08
CHRONO TRIGGER SQUARE ENIX 11/20/08
SAKATSUKU DS SEGA CORPORATION 11/20/08
Animal Crossing: City Folk 11/20/08
Naruto Clash of Ninja Revolution Shippuden 3 TOMY COMPANY, LTD. 11/27/08
Rune Factory Frontier Marvelous Entertainment, Inc. 11/27/08
Professor Layton and Last Time Travel (Temp.) LEVEL-5 Inc. 11/27/08
December 2008
Personal Trainer: Cooking 12/04/08
428 SEGA CORPORATION 12/04/08
Tatsunolo VS. CAPCOM CAPCOM 12/11/08
CROSS GENERATION OF HEROES
RYGAR: THE BATTLE OF ARGUS TECMO, LTD.
Taiku no Tasujin Wii Games Inc. 12/11/08
Wii de Asobu Donkey Kong Jungle Beat 12/11/08
Chocobo to mahounoehon Majo to shouho to goninnoyusya SQUARE ENIX 12/11/08
Let’s Tap SEGA CORPORATION 12/18/08
SONIC Unleashed SEGA CORPORATION 12/18/08
KARAOKE JOYSOUND Wii HUDSON SOFT COMPANY, LIMITED 12/18/08
TALES OF HEARTS NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. 12/18/08
Momotaro Dentetsu 20th Anniversary HUDSON SOFT COMPANY, LIMITED 12/18/08
Bokujou Monogatari DS4 (Temp.) Marvelous Entertainment Inc. 12/18/08
Biohazard CAPCOM 12/25/08
PHANTASY STAR ZERO SEGA CORPORATION 12/25/08
Wii de Asobu Pikmin 12/25/08
January 2009
FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES Echoes of TIme SQUARE ENIX 1/29/2009
Castlevania Judgment KONAMI 1/15/09
FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES SQUARE ENIX 1/29/09
Echoes of Time
February
DEAD RISING CHOP TILL YOU DROP CAPCOM
March
DRAGON QUEST IX SQUARE ENIX
2009
Tomadachi Collection (Temp.)
Famicom Wars DS2 (Temp.)
Mario & Luigi RPG 3 (Temp.)
Made in Ore
Rittai Picross
DS Uranai Seikatsu
Another Code: R Kioku no Tobira
Sin & Punishment 2 (Temp.)
Punch-Out!!
100 Go de Start! Eikaiwa (Temp.)
Hoshi no Kirby (Temp.)
Minna ga Shuyaku no NHK Kohaku
Quiz Gassen (Temp.)
Wii de Asobu Pikmin 2
Wii de Asobu Mario Tennies GC
US
October 2008
Wii Music 10/20/08
Celebrity Sports Showdown Electronic Arts 10/20/08
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Konami 10/21/08
Guitar Hero: World Tour Activision Publishing/Red Octane 10/26/08
My Sims Kingdom Electronic Arts 10/28/08
November 2008
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 THQ 11/09/08
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia 11/10/08
Call of Duty: World at War Activision Publishing 11/11/08
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World NAMCO BANDAI 11/11/08
Games America Inc.
Srar Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels Lucas Arts 11/11/08
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance Lucas Arts 11/11/08
Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades 11/16/08
Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip Ubisoft 11/16/08
Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party Ubisoft 11/18/08
Imagine Ballet Star Ubisoft 11/18/08
CHRONO TRIGGER Square Enix 11/25/08
All Star Cheer Squad THQ 11/08
Tony Hawk’s Motion Activision Publishing 11/08
Animal Crossing: City Folk 11/16/08
Personal Trainer: Cooking 11/24/08
January 2009
SimAnimals Electronic Arts 1/27/09
2009
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Personal trainer: Walking (Temp.)
Rhythm Heaven
Mario & Lugi RPG 3
Mystery Case Files
Wii Sports Resort
Punch-Out!!
Sin & Pubishment 2
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Rockstar Games
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix D3 Publisher
Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure Electronic Arts
Tenchu 4 Ubisoft
TBA
Mario Tennis (GameCube Port) (Temp.)
Pikmin (GameCube Port) (Temp.)
Pokemon Platinum
October 2008
Pokemon Platinum Disaster: Day of Crisis 10/24/08
November 2009
Wii Music 11/14/08
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia 11/21/08
December 2009
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon 12/05/08
Animal Crossing: Let’s Go to the City 12/05/08
2009
Wii Sports Resort
Mystery Case Files
TBA
Pokemon Platinum
Video game software shares drop because of sales fears
Filed in External News, , 9:58 pm
A day after EA posted its disappointing quarterly report, video game software shares drop due to fears that companies may fail to deliver profitable titles during the holidays. As a result, retailers are stocking up mostly on top-rated titles, and skimming down on the not-so-anticipated ones, putting less popular games at a disadvantage on the market.
“What they (retail stores) are doing is they’re focusing more on the bigger frontline titles,” EA COO John Pleasants said. “They are being a lot more cautious with catalog ordering, in particular, and especially in that kind of mid-zone.”
While larger companies have large enough titles to keep up with the current retail situation, other publishers may suffer with this behavior. Todd Greenwald of Signal Hill Capital Group notes,
“We believe this fits in with our thesis that gamers are getting more selective, and are only purchasing those AAA titles that are truly must-haves. This bodes well for Activision’s holiday lineup while it probably raises some concerns for publishers like THQ, Midway, and Take-Two.”
With the economy the way it is and all, it’s not surprising. Only the strong lineups are expected to score big during the holidays, and all the other titles might not even make it to the shelves. Publishers and retailers alike are caught in the domino effect, and the gaming industry might experience colder holidays.
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- Heads rolling: EA axes 600 employees
“Dante’s Inferno” being developed by EA; movie studios already bidding for Hollywood rights
Filed in External News, , 9:52 pm
Apparently, Electronic Arts‘ is creating a game version of Dante Aligieri’s Inferno, and it is definitely in hot demand. Four major studios are currently in a high-stakes bidding battle for its rights to made it into a movie version even before the game releases – or is officially announced.
As for the game, although the publisher has not said anything about theup coming project, it’s been found that they have already trademarked the name as early as February of this year: “Dante’s Inferno”. Well, okay. Makes sense seeing as it is about Dante Alleghieri’s “Inferno”.
The game will allegedly be a modern interpretation of the epic poem with the players fighting their way down the nine steps to hell. The plan is to have it scheduled for release late next year. E
As for the movie bit, A has been licensing its projects to Hollywood with Army of Two (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) and The Sims, among others, so this future cross-over shouldn’t really come as a surprise. What is surprising is that they didn’t even wait for the game to be released first. Usually, studios see first if the game title sells well before even considering to ship it to Hollywood. Dante’s Inferno, obviously, is the exception to that usual case.
The studios are reportedly racing to grab the rights for the said classic’s movie version are the following: Paramount, Universal, MGM and New Regency. Warner Bros. was also reported to be interested, but has since dropped out of the bidding last Thursday.
Hmm.. it should be interesting how the nine circles of hell would look like, both for the game and movie versions, don’t you think? We’ll be sure to keep a close watch on more updates for this one as they come. Our curiosity most certainly is piqued.
Market analysts unimpressed with EA
Filed in External News, , 9:19 pmAfter posting a lackluster quarterly report yesterday, EA fails to impress market analysts with its current standing. Even with strong annualized titles such as NBA Live and Madden NFL, analysts believe that Electronic Arts just isn’t taking full advantage of their growth.
“While we are encouraged by improving quality ratings of several annualized EA Sports titles, as well as recently released Dead Space (Xbox 360, PS3), we continue to believe the improving product execution is coming at a high cost,” notes Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets. “EA’s margins are ramping more slowly than we originally expected at the beginning of the year.” Sebastian has already lowered his rating on the stock from “Buy” to “Hold.”
Some analysts were even more disappointed with EA, including Evan Wilson of Pacific Crest Securities. “EA’s results have been mediocre for too long,” he wrote. He also noted that their actions “exacerbate the negatives that the video game industry is facing.”
Wedbush Morgan Securities’ Michael Pachter could not be more blunt about the situation. “EA management was somewhat aloof during the earnings call,” he said. “With the stock hovering near a seven-year low, management continued its recent history of disappointment, and spent an inordinate amout of time sowing seeds of fear about the potential for a tepid holiday sales season.”
But all is not lost. Pachter also notes that EA is very capable of turning the situation around. “Management has demonstrated an uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the eyes of investors,” he wrote. Unlike Sebastian, Pachter retained his “Strong Buy” rating on the publisher.
If you’re planning to put some money on EA, you might want to slow down and think again. Things can still turn around but it seems they’ve had this coming for a long time. With the continued growth of the gaming industry, EA just can’t get caught sitting on its laurels.
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Wii homebrew – Wii-Tac-Toe v0.3
Filed in External News, , 8:22 pm
If you’re keeping a list of what homebrew works with the latest Homebrew Channel release, you can now add Crayon’s Wii-Tac-Toe to it.
Version 0.3 of the homebrew tic-tac-toe game for the Wii is now compatible with Homebrew Channel beta 9. This is just a compatibility update, so there aren’t any changes to the gameplay or any new features.
Keep checking back here for more homebrew news for the Nintendo Wii console.
Download: Wii-Tac-Toe v0.3
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Belgian authorities to require permits for game video rentals
Filed in External News, , 6:59 pm
Game rentals were banned in Belgium last June upon the Belgian Entertainment Association convincing the authorities to do so. The report is that it will start in December 1 and anyone caught will be facing legal action. Better straighten up or you’ll be facing jail time.
The Belgian gaming industry believes that companies lose money because of game rentals since more customers are opting out to rent games rather than buy their own copies. Worse is that the rental shop owners by their own copies of the game by retail and have them rented out in their stores.
What’s wrong with this is that it bypasses the rental procedure of the store owners getting a consultation with the publisher first and then they buy wholesale from them. Essentially, it follows the same procedures that rental stores go through for films.
Olivier Maeterlinck, Managing Director of the Belgian Entertainment Association, explains:
What’s happening is that video rental stores are declining in popularity, and because of this those stores began to buy retail copies of games and put them up for rent. I can’t think of any country that would allow this. Rental outlets need publisher permission to rent out games, and need to buy them wholesale, just like with films.
Filip Dossche, manager of Game Mania, consider this new legislation as catastrophic because game rentals make up more than 10 of his total income and the new law will definitely affect his business.
However, new reports appear to say that it’s not so bad after all since they are not totally banning these stores. Instead, they are only going to be implementing stricter policies on the game rentals industry, specifically on getting permits before they can rent out titles.
Wow, who would’ve thought that rentals business can be risky business? Stay tuned here for more updates.
Wii homebrew – HBCXMLGen v0.0.1
Filed in External News, , 6:40 pm
Here’s a little something for those who have trouble remembering the XML tags needed to add homebrew applications to the Wii’s Homebrew Channel.
This app is called HBCXMLGen. It automatically generates the XML file that you need in order to add an app to the Homebrew Channel. It’s written in Java, so this app goes onto your computer.
Developer pinecone notes that for Mac OSX users, “upon downloading the file, unzipping it causes the contents of the .jar file to spill out.” Hopefully this issue will be addressed in a future update.
Download: HBCXMLGen v0.0.1
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Activision owns at the 26th Annual Golden Joystick Awards
Filed in External News, , 6:08 pm
If you failed to catch it online, then here are the highlights from The 26th Annual Golden Joystick Awards. Hosted by Frankie Boyle, the event handed out honors to the top games of the year.
Activision owned as it picked up the Publisher of the Year award, along with four more awards for Call of Duty 4 (PS3, Xbox 360).
Rockstar also got a big piece of the action, winning Developer of the Year, Soundtrack of the Year, and Xbox Game of the Year for Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3).
Find out how everyone else fared in the list below.
- Publisher of the Year: Activision
- CVG.co.uk UK Developer of the Year: Rockstar
- The Sun Family Game of The Year: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
- Bliss Handheld Game of The Year: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
- Activision Blizzard Retailer of The Year: Play.com
- The E4 Talent Mobile Game of The Year: Bejeweled 2
- Nintendo Game of The Year Sponsored by Official Nintendo Magazine : Super Smash Bros. Brawl
- Nuts All-Nighter Multiplayer Game of The Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- BBC1Xtra Soundtrack of The Year: Grand Theft Auto 4
- ARVATO Xbox Game of The Year: Grand Theft Auto 4
- PC Game of The Year Sponsored by The United Kingdom e-Sport Association: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- The Play.com One to Watch: Call of Duty: World at War
- PlayStation Game of The Year Sponsored by Official Playstation Magazine: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
- Edge Most Wanted: Fallout 3
- E4.com Grand Master Flash Award: Stickman Madness
- Games Radar’s Online Game of The Year: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Virgin Media Ultimate Game of The Year: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Whad’ya think? Are your favorites up there? Comments below.
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Wii homebrew – Pong2 v0.8
Filed in External News, , 5:23 pm
Wplaat’s Pong2 homebrew game for the Nintendo Wii console has been given another update. Version 0.8 now has a new level along with support for the Wii Classic Controller.
Here’s the full changelog for Pong2 v0.8:
- Add support for Wii Classic Controller
- Add two bars on the gameboard (Game Level>2 and higher).
- Add game level six
Pong2 is another reimagining of that timeless classic, Pong. It has some cool features like ball speed control and the paddles can be moved along both the horizontal and vertical axes.
Download: Pong2 v0.8
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