An Xbox 360 game sells tons in Japan.
We said it sold 70k units. We were wrong, the actual Media Create figures for Blue Dragon showed that the game sold 80k units in its first week in Japan. Like the headline says, it obliterated Zelda — which finished 17th for the week, but guess what? Zelda came out the week before and the Wii is impossible to find across the sea — Nintendo and Zelda are just fine. Seventeen of the top 30 games in Japan are Nintendo published titles, none of the games in the top 30 were PS3 or PSP titles.
For some perspective on the Japanese market, guess what last week’s number one selling game was? A Gundam game. ‘Nuff said.
Source: gametab.com
Portrait of Ruin is a great game not because of what it does differently, but because it stays true to the familiar Castlevania design and delivers a fun, lengthy adventure.
The Good: Team mechanic puts a new twist on the familiar Castlevania formula; tons of weapons, items, and secrets to find; a handful of fantastic boss battles; excellent music; great-looking environments, character designs, and animations.
The Bad: Level design is slightly dull compared to previous Castlevania games; there are only three short levels available for co-op play.
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Space Western brought to you by James Cameron’s ‘Multiverse.’
Those of us who like the “You got your Sci-Fi in my Western! / You got your Western in my Sci-Fi!” flavor of Joss Whedon’s Firefly like it a lot. It’s time for dancin’ then, to hear that the franchise is soon to be given new life as a Massively Multiplayer Online Game, courtesy of MMO Creators Multiverse and Fox.
The world of Firefly — like many classic Western heroes — burned too brightly and died too young. After only 11 episodes and one movie, the series fell on hard times, and out of production — though not for lack of fan support. (more…)
Free play for sci-fi MMO extended into 2008.
Funcom’s sweet deal — unlimited playtime in Anarchy Online, completely free of charge — just got a little bit sweeter. Not only has the offer been extended until January 2008, it now includes the PvP-centric Notum Wars expansion pack.
“The free offer has been an amazing success and a chance to show massive amounts of players how good this game actually is,” said Trond Arne Aas, CEO of Funcom. To date, nearly one million players have taken Funcom up on their almost-too-good-to-be-true offer, and while Aas expects the chance to smite fellow Anarchists to draw in even more new players, that’s not the only reason Funcom is including Notum Wars in the deal. “…we gain invaluable large-scale data on innovative business and distribution models, enabling us to shape the future of our other games better informed,” said Aas.
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Steam, competition for retailers
Valve just announced that the first person RPG Dark Messiah was released today. The game just shipped today to US outlets
and the retail price for the regular version is around US$ 50.
The Collector’s Edition will set you back some US$ 60 but I bet gamers who have been waiting for this game won’t mind coughing up that kind of money. If you are too lazy to go out and purchase the game, or you just don’t want to stay in line at the cash register, know that the game will also be available via Steam digital distribution system.
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Beta testing scheduled for December
The release of the fantasy/Sci-fi computer game from S2 Games, Savage 2, has been postponed. The games’ developers affirmed that they need more time in order to polish the game and make some final adjustments. Is that how you say it when you
didn’t get anything done?
Savage 2: A Tortured Soul was due to come out sometime in late 2006, but S2 Games decided to postpone its release until March 2007. This news comes after pre-orders have been placed for the game.
Players who can’t wait to try out the game can sign-up for beta testing this winter, as the beta testing lists will be opened sometime in mid-December.
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Epic Games’ sci-fi shooter meets same sales-limiting fate as Dead Rising; country’s ratings board refuses classification.
Back in July, German zombie-haters were stymied in their quest to slay the undead when the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) refused to give the game a rating due to its excessive violence. While this didn’t officially ban the game, it effectively limited the scope of its release and made it available only as a hard-to-get under-the-counter sale.
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RPG players will enjoy this upcoming release
Atari and Obsidian Entertainment announced today that Neverwinters Nights 2 has gone gold. The game is scheduled for North American release of October 31 and European release on November 3.
The game is developed by Obsidian Entertainment, and is said to feature new extensive single player gaming. Also, the characters
are said to be more developed and players will have available a new powerful toolset meant to help them to create their own universes, storylines and quests.
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No exclusivity confirmed, Nov. 21date targeted.
Bethesda Softworks indicated the additional content being worked into the PlayStation 3 version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the hardware launch in November would not remain exclusive to Sony, and this afternoon’s announcement from the studio confirms it. The “Knights of the Nine” content will be made available for Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live Marketplace and on the PC via download or retail on November 21st.
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What we heard: Given the amount of hype that is going into the launch of the Xbox 360 game Gears of War, it would seem that pumping out a demo would be a priority for Microsoft Game Studios. The marketing team behind the game has already held public events for common folk to try the game out before its release in November, so it also make sense that a demo would be appearing on Xbox Live Marketplace soon.
Unfortunately for those eagerly anticipating a free trial of the game before it is released, it doesn’t appear that a demo will be out before the game hits stores. In early August, Mark Rein, president of Gears developer Epic Games, said, “I don’t see any way we could do a demo before the game comes out.” He went on to explain that making a demo would take up valuable time that could be spent polishing up the retail version for its release.
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